For a Friend
by FloseyJS
Summary: Edward and Bella have aways been friends. When Edward invites her over to his and his wife's house one day, he has a question to ask Bella that will turn their relationship upside down. Will Bella agree to go through being pregnant to have his child?
1. Strange Request

**For a Friend**

**Hi. This is my second fan fiction. I know that a lot of you are probably thinking that this is very much like BrightEyes234's 'Tiny Heart', and in actual fact I did get some inspiration from this story but I was planning it before I knew it existed. It will run on a slightly different page to that story and I have received BrightEyes's approval to publish.**

**Quick Summary: Edward and Bella are best friends, along with Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. They have been ever since the start of high school, but Bella has always liked Edward a little too much for just friends and no one has ever noticed.**

**Chapter 1: Strange Request**

I climbed up into my ancient Chevy truck, slammed the door and ignored the deafening roar of the engine that announced my arrival at any destination. Pulling out of the car park to my apartment block, I headed down the road and around the corner.

I took a deep breath. I hadn't been to Edward's new house yet. I had been avoiding having to go there for the past month or so. In fact, I hadn't seen Edward himself for about two weeks now. I had known it was only a matter of time before I would have to see him again.

It wasn't that I didn't want to see him. He was probably the person who I wanted to see most in the world. No. It was his wife that I didn't want to see. Every time I saw them together was like another painful punch in the stomach.

It had never been like this back in school. Edward, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and even Rosalie at times had been my best friends. They still were, all this time later. The Cullens and the Hales were all adopted siblings. They were all together; Emmett and Rosalie, Alice and Jasper. Carlisle and Esme Cullen were their adopted parents and I had been lucky enough to be accepted into their happy family.

Ever since the first year of high school, when I had moved to Forks to live with Charlie, I had been with the Cullens. I couldn't even remember how it happened. It just seemed so natural to be with them, there never seemed to be a beginning. No doubt I had done something stupid, like fall on top of one of them.

Pretty much since I had first spoken to Edward, I had known that I wanted something more than friends. There was no question about it. But he never loved me back. Well of course he loved me- I was his best friend- but not in the way I would have wanted.

No one else noticed it and I was very good at hiding my feelings. I have done for almost nine years. I watched as girl after girl, stared at him, batted her eyelids and laughed at his least amusing comments, all the while being a faithful friend and keeping my feelings to myself.

Edward was extremely good looking. I could spend hours, days, trying to describe his face and that still wouldn't do it justice. So there was no doubt that the girls at school would chase after him.

He was a gentleman, he told them politely that he wasn't interested, but there was always one every few months that caught his eye and I would sit by and watch them together, trying to ignore the ache in my chest, until it was over and then I would enjoy the freedom until the next one came along.

Many of the girls at school shot me hateful looks as I walked down the corridors with him, or sat with him at lunch and especially whenever he grabbed my hand to pull me in a certain direction, which would make my heart rate accelerate and my breath catch in my throat. But I knew that there was nothing romantic about it. Purely friendship. And we _were_ best friends.

I was the one he would confide in whenever he had issues with one of his girlfriends or if he couldn't decide how to ask someone out and I did what a best friend should and helped him, no matter how much pain it caused me.

Then graduation had finally come round and we had all gone separate ways. I was studying a degree in journalism not too far from the University where Alice, Emmett and Rosalie were, while Edward and Jasper went off to study medicine. I had expected our friendship to disappear after that, fade away gradually. What I had not expected was us getting together every weekend and having dinner at least once a week.

The only time the group didn't get together was when exam time came around and everyone was madly studying.

Alice, Emmett and I had all finished our degrees around two or three years back and were living very close to the University where Jasper and Edward studied. Rosalie was a bit further away, but she still managed to get here every two weeks or so. It had all worked out rather well, better than what I had ever expected it to.

It was only a year ago now that Edward had invited us all to his apartment and had announced that he was engaged. That had been the end to my hopes and dreams of ever being with him. It had taken all the strength I could muster to last for a couple of hours at his house before rushing home and breaking down.

I hadn't seen Edward nearly as much since then. I still saw him every week at our usual get-togethers, but it hadn't been the same as it was. We didn't spend time alone together and we definitely didn't have the conversations that we used to.

Around a month ago, Edward and Tanya had bought a house together about five minutes from my apartment. Edward was still studying and Tanya was a model/hairdresser but the Cullen's had always had money, so it was no surprise that they could afford it.

That had led to yet another crack in my heart and I hadn't seen anyone but Alice for the past two weeks.

We were all around twenty two now and I still hadn't let anyone know my true feelings. Edward was ten months older than me, and I was still twenty one for another five months. The rest of the Cullens had already celebrated their birthdays this year so I was the only one left to get to twenty two. Emmett liked to mention this whenever he got a chance.

This morning at around ten, Edward had called me up and asked if I could come around and see the house, and chat for a while. I couldn't say no to his voice, so that was how I came to be in the car right now pulling up in front of his new, masterpiece of a home.

My mood increased greatly when I saw that Tanya's car wasn't in the garage, meaning she must be out. I took a deep breath and jumped down out of the truck. The door to the house opened before I had taken two steps and I couldn't help the huge grin that spread across my face as Edward walked out to greet me.

"Bella!" he yelled as he pulled me into a huge hug.

"Hey Edward!" I said happily. I couldn't help but be happy when he was around.

"Come inside." He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me through the door.

"Wow." Was all that I could manage as he pulled me through the house, giving me the grand tour. We walked around for about ten minutes as Edward showed me the bathroom, the kitchen, the lounge, the three bedrooms and the study. _I_ didn't understand why they needed three bedrooms when there were only two of them in the house.

We finally ended up back in the kitchen and Edward said excitedly, "So what do you think?"

"It's... wow Edward, just wow." He grinned happily and walked over to the fridge.

"You thirsty?"

"Just water thanks." As Edward busied himself with the drinks I wandered into the living room and stared around with wide eyes. Everything in the room looked brand new and modern. There were leather couches sitting in front of a large plasma TV and a fire place set into the opposite wall.

I jumped slightly when Edward tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a tall glass of water.

"Thanks." I said lamely. Edward gestured to the lounges and we sat down opposite each other. As I took another sip of water I couldn't help noticing that Edward seemed a little tense, like he was nervous about something. I observed his hand which was cupped around his glass of water, holding it too tightly to be normal. The tendons on his wrist were standing out.

I looked up at his face and momentarily lost my voice as his eyes met mine. I blinked a couple of times then managed to say, "You ok Edward?" He didn't answer for a moment then looking away from me and fidgeting slightly he said,

"Actually Bella, there was something that I wanted to talk to you about." I frowned when he still didn't meet my eyes. This wasn't like him at all, something must be wrong.

"What's up?" I asked, putting down my glass and staring at him in concern.

"Nothing's _up_ exactly, it's just... well..." He still wouldn't look at me. What could possibly be that bad?

"Edward, you _can _talk to me about anything. You know that right?"

"Yes, I know... it's just, I don't know how to say something like this." Now I was really confused. If nothing was wrong, why couldn't he just tell me? I had just opened my mouth to speak when he beat me to it.

"Well, you see the other day Tanya-" I winced at her name, "and I went to get some tests done." He said all this very quickly and I had to think for a moment before I actually got what he had said.

"Tests?" I asked, still very confused.

"Yes... well the results of those _tests_ told us that... well... Tanya's... infertile."

I sat where I was as my brain processed this new information. I wasn't thinking about the test results at all, I was merely thinking about why they must have gone to have those tests done... I had no idea that they had been... _trying_.

My breathing hitched as this realisation hit me. Well that was a perfect way to top off a perfect month. The room seemed slightly fuzzy as I tried to contemplate this new information. This was really happening. Tanya and Edward. It was happening. I took a deep steadying breath -I could break down about this later- in an attempt to calm myself. Edward wouldn't have told me this if he wasn't upset. He needed me.

I looked up and found him finally looking at me and the expression on his face told me that that part of the conversation was not what he had been dreading the most. He still looked uncomfortable, rather than relieved.

"Umm... Edward I'm sorry, do you need me to do anything for you. You must be well... upset." My voice sounded hoarse even to me, but Edward didn't seem to notice. He looked even more anxious at me comforting him than when I had said nothing at all. Alright now I was really confused. What was going on?

"Actually Bella, that's why I'm telling you, there is something that you can do for me, well... for us." He looked away from me again, I frowned. What did he need? He knew that I would do almost anything for him.

"Anything Edward, you know that." I reached forward and squeezed one of his hands. He gave a nervous laugh and said,

"Actually, I'm quite sure that this isn't included in your _'anything'_ category."

"What is it then?" He was starting to scare me a little. I couldn't contemplate why he was so nervous.

He glanced around the room a couple more times then finally looked me in the eye. It seemed to take a huge effort.

"Bella, we've been friends for a long time now right?"

"Right..." I said slowly, frowning at him in confusion.

"You know that you're my best friend and that I would trust you with anything right?"

"Right..."

"And that I wouldn't ask you to do something unless I thought that it was the only way, or that it was completely necessary?"

"Edward, where are you going with this, surely it can't be that ba-" but he cut me off before I could finish.

"Bella, I'm asking you to... if you would consider... being a surrogate for me and Tanya."

**How you all like it. Please let me know what you think and whether or not I should continue. Thanks again to BrightEyes. I'll post again soon if you guys like it.**


	2. Decisions

**For a Friend**

**Hi everyone I'm back. I've already got a couple of chapters written so I can update a bit more frequently. So glad people liked the last chapter. I don't think this is quite as long as the last one though. Please let me know what you think!**

**Chapter 2: Decisions**

Complete and utter silence filled the large room. I felt my eyes widen with shock at what Edward had asked. That definitely wasn't what I was expecting. Unconsciously I pulled my hand out of his and leaned back from him. He seemed to take this badly.

I stared at him in shock for a moment longer, unable to tear my eyes away from his, until finally I blinked. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. It was like my brain was in shock, unable to function normally.

"Bella, please say something." said Edward desperately. It was his turn to lean forward and hold my hand now. I shook my head slightly, trying to clear it. Had Edward just asked me to have his child? Surely I had misheard him?

"W-..W..What?" I asked finally able to speak.

"I just asked you whether-"

"It was a rhetorical question Edward!" I said, a little more angrily that what I had meant, I was stunned after all.

The expression on his face snapped me out of my own little world and I suddenly realized that this probably wasn't too pleasant for him either. He _wouldn't_ be asking me unless he was desperate.

"Edward... I-"

"Don't bother Bella. I shouldn't have asked you. It's selfish. Tanya just thought-"

"Wait _Tanya_ thought? What did _Tanya_ think?"

"A lot of this was her idea." He explained. He looked slightly sheepish.

"Oh." Was all that I could say. That certainly didn't make me feel like jumping to my feet and volunteering for the job.

"Bella, please don't feel like I'm forcing this idea upon you. I'm not too keen on it myself, though if you said yes I would be more than happy. Ecstatic actually."

I needed to think. This wasn't a decision that I could make on the spot. It was huge life altering stuff, even for me and I wouldn't be looking after the kid. I mean nine months is a long time, especially when I'm not even going through it for myself. But I wasn't just going to say no either. I could admit that I didn't like the idea much, but it was Edward, and I wanted more than anything for him to be happy.

Edward was sitting back slightly now, obviously aware that I was thinking. Then finally I spoke.

"I'm not going to say yes right now, but I'm not saying no either. I mean Edward I'm 21. I probably wouldn't consider having a kid even if I _was_ married. I need to talk to a few people. Think properly about it, you know." He looked shocked at this answer.

"You mean you're actually considering this?" He seemed genuinely surprised.

"Well yeah. I'm not just going to say no straight away because it doesn't appeal to me. You're my best friend." He still looked surprised; if truth be told _I_ was shocked with my answer.

"Bella... I-"

"I need to think Edward. I don't know how I feel yet." My voice sounded slightly shaky but Edward merely nodded and stood up. I followed suit and we walked towards the front door together. He turned to hug me and I embraced him gratefully, then, without another word, I walked out to my truck and backed out of the drive.

My mind was elsewhere as I drove back down the street. I felt dreamy, like I was floating as I attempted to get my head around what Edward had just asked of me. What did I have to consider in this decision? It was huge. It was a baby and even though it wouldn't be mine I would probably still have a lot to do with its life.

What would this baby do? Would it bring Tanya and Edward closer together? Would it bring Edward and _I_ closer together? I shook my head and scolded myself. That was selfish. I couldn't think like that, couldn't let my feelings get in the way of Edwards happiness.

Of course it would bring Edward and Tanya closer. They would have a child; something that would always hold them together no matter what. But... while legally and technically the child would be his and Tanya's, _biologically _it would be Edward's and mine. I had to admit I liked the sound of that. I shook myself again and forced those thoughts out of my head. This wasn't about my gain.

Then there was the fact that I would be pregnant, _pregnant._ I shuddered at the thought. I had never really thought about children much. I always thought that babies would be something that I wouldn't have to consider for another good five years or so. Even so, they had never really appealed to me. There was no doubt in my mind that I would be able to give the child up. Especially for Edward.

But I wouldn't have to worry about the actual baby part. No. My main worry in this situation would be the pregnancy. Throwing up, stretch marks, a weak bladder and possibly never getting my body back the same again. I flinched as I imagined myself with a huge belly restricting every movement I made, not even being able to walk straight without an effort.

That was definitely the main reason why I wouldn't consider this. Then there was also the fact that I'm only 21. That's not exactly an acceptable age to be doing this. People wouldn't think too highly of me if they didn't know the whole story. I don't have a boyfriend and I don't exactly look very old. That sounded bad even to me.

I would certainly have to talk to my parents first. After I finally make up my mind that is.

I was shocked to find myself opening the door to my apartment already. I stood in the doorframe for a moment as I let myself settle back to reality. I frowned and took a deep breath. What to do? I felt strange, like I didn't know what to do with myself. It was probably good that Edward decided to tell me this on a weekend, when I didn't have to work.

We were going out to dinner tonight. Great. That wouldn't be awkward at all. I went into the kitchen and stood there aimlessly. It was only a small apartment after all. Then one word came to mind. Alice. I hurried over to the phone and started dialling the familiar number.

One ring, two rings, three ri-. "Hello?"

"Hey Alice, its Bella."

"Oh! Hey Bella!" Alice was a very excitable person, always jumping up and down about something or another.

"Hey listen Alice, would you mind coming over a little early and we can go to dinner together. I... I need to talk to you about something." I didn't think that it was best for me to tell her about the situation over the phone.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, not _wrong_. I just need to talk to you about something. Can you come?"

"Well I was going to go with Jasper tonight, but if it's really important I can just see him there. Are you sure you're alright? You sound kind of odd." I cleared my throat.

"Yea Alice, just come over soon ok?"

"Be over in ten. I'll get ready there." I placed the phone back on the receiver and ran my fingers through my hair. Then I sat on the couch and turned the television on, I wasn't really watching though. My mind was still elsewhere.

A loud rap on the door sounded through the house, causing me to jump slightly before hurrying up to let Alice in. I glanced at the clock on my way over, she had gotten here in record time; seven minutes.

I opened the door to reveal Alice, completely laden with bags. My eyes widened when I saw all four of them.

"Hi Bella!" She said excitedly, though I could hear the slight concern in her voice.

"You're not planning on staying here for the week are you Alice?" I said my eyes wide as I examined all of the bags again. She shot me an annoyed look.

"I told you I was getting ready here Bella. I do need everything you know, and I hadn't decided what I wanted to wear when you called so I brought a few things round to choose from."

"Alright then." I said, grinning as she danced through the door and dumped the bags on my kitchen bench.

I followed her into the lounge where she plonked herself down on a chair and looked at me expectantly. She gave me her typical 'tell me now' look and I sighed and sat down opposite her.

"Bella, there is definitely something wrong. You look like you've seen a ghost!" I frowned at her. There wasn't exactly anything _wrong_, yet I still couldn't figure out how to tell her.

"Nothing's the matter Alice. I went round to Edwards house about twenty minutes ago and we had a chat that's all." Alice raised her eyebrows at me.

"Well... he asked me... he asked me to... well..."

"For god's sake Bella spit it out!"

"I'm sorry! Now I know how Edward felt!" It must have been so much worse for him to ask me if I found it hard just to tell Alice!

"What's so bad? Bella you're starting to get me worried here. Is there something wrong with him and Tanya? Did he fail an exam or something? Did he do something bad? Did _you_ do something bad?"

"No Alice, it's nothing like that. I just don't know how to start, that's all."

"Just start at the beginning Bella." She said, shuffling herself closer to me on the couch.

"Alright, well about an hour or so ago Edward called me and asked me round to the new house. He gave me the tour but he seemed kinda anxious about something. We went and sat in the lounge room and I asked him what was wrong."

"Alright..." said Alice slowly.

"First he told me that he and Tanya had had some tests done the other day... fertility tests."

"What!?" yelled Alice making me jump a mile in my seat. I was so concentrated on what Edward had asked me that I had forgotten that that was a shock in itself.

"I didn't even know that they were considering...!" She yelled, her eyes wide as she stared at me, wanting more information.

"I know," I said slowly, remembering how upset I was at this news. Edwards question had blown that way out of my mind. "Well the tests came back and Tanya's... infertile-"

"Oh no!" said Alice. She obviously seemed to think that this was what I had wanted to tell her. Ahh... how wrong she was.

"This is terrible! Edward must have been upset. Is that why he told you? Did you comfort him? I have to talk to him! He's still coming to dinner tonight right? Maybe I cou-"

"Alice!" I said quickly before she could get into a rant, "That wasn't exactly what I wanted to talk to you about." She looked at me like I was crazy.

"Bella! This is huge! You can't just expect me to talk about something else after that! I mean surely you must have _something_ to say on the matter to!"

"I know Alice, but there's something else, well something more." It was clear that I had her attention by her sudden silence. That was a rare thing for Alice.

"After he told me that, he asked me something; asked me to do something for him... and Tanya." Alice's shocked expression had slid into a frown. She obviously had no idea where I was headed with this.

"He asked me to... umm... I don't exactly know ho-"

"For goodness sake! Do you have any idea how anxious I am over here? The way you're acting, it's like someone's died!"

"Just let me finish Alice ok. This is sort of difficult to say. He asked me to-," She gave me an exasperated look and made a motion with her hand in the air; telling me to hurry it along.

I snapped. "Fine! He asked me if I would have a kid _for_ him!"

Alice's mouth fell open in shock. The hand that she had been gesturing with fell limply to her side. I stared at her, feeling slightly numb that I had finally gotten it out in the open. Why was it so hard for me to say?

There was a moment of stunned silence, then,

"What!?" said Alice in a tense whisper that was barely audible. It was like she was afraid that we would be overheard or something. "Are you serious?"

"Yes of course I'm serious," I said exasperated. I slumped back into the cushions of the couch and let out a loud huff of air, "Why else would I say something like that?"

"Bella... this, this is... I don't even know what this is." I looked up at her still stunned expression.

"Yeah be like that for another hour or so and you'll probably be where I am now." I closed my eyes. I could feel the beginnings of a headache starting to form; I had been thinking far too much for one day.

"But... you didn't say _yes_ did you?"

"No, of course I didn't, but I didn't say no either. He's one of my best friends Alice; I couldn't just blurt out no to his face. I... I told him I would consider it." If it were possible, Alice looked even more shocked than she had before.

"What are you going to do!?" she said anxiously.

"I don't _know_," I groaned, sinking still lower into the lounge, "that's why I wanted to talk to you, see what you thought, because _I_ don't know what to think."

"Well, there's quite a bit to consider," she said quietly, as though she was deep in thought, "but I don't know Bella. Don't you reckon it's sort of strange? I mean you're best friends. I know _I_ can't picture you, you know... pregnant." She sounded worried. I glanced up at her and saw that her brow was furrowed as she stared at the blank TV screen.

"Neither can I," I said slowly, "But what else are they going to do Alice? I mean, I know that I wouldn't like it much if he got someone he didn't know to do this."

"They do have other options, like adoption and all that, but I guess that's not the same. This way it would be part Edward's biologically and I suppose they would choose that over something else unless they had no choice."

"I know and I don't want Edward to be unhappy." I sighed and sat up slightly. Alice turned to look at me and said,

"In the end it's your choice Bella. I mean it would be weird and there are so little pros and heaps of cons to the situation. I guess it all comes down to what you consider more important. I know I can't picture it happening but I'm not you." I nodded slowly, shook my head and then glanced at the bags in the kitchen.

"Well there's no point in sitting here all afternoon. We're never going to get to the restaurant in time if I don't let you get to work soon." I grinned as her usual excited expression came back into place and she bounced to her feet and danced back into the kitchen.

I shook my head and laughed as I followed her towards the small bathroom. It was going to be a long night.

**There you go guys. Please let me know if I should keep going and what you like about it and what you want to happen!! Thanks for reading. More reviews I get the quicker I'll update. Speak to you soon.**


	3. Dinner Disaster

**For A Friend**

**Hello everyone! Thank you very much for my reviews, tho I would be pleased with a few more. I've had more favourites than I have had reviews per chapter, so I think there's something wrong there. Anyway, this chapter should be a good one. It's fairly long so please enjoy!**

**Chapter 3: Dinner Disaster**

Alice and I pulled up at the small restaurant where we all got together every Saturday night. Our table was usually the first to arrive and the last to leave. We were even on first name terms with the manager and weighting staff.

I didn't know why I felt slightly nervous at the sight of Edward's car parked next to Emmett's jeep a little down the car park. I would normally be thrilled at the thought of seeing him, but this afternoon's conversation seemed to have put me in a jumpy mood.

Alice must have noticed my preoccupation because she wrapped her arm around mine as we walked through the doors. She gave a small wave to the manager behind the counter and ignoring the 'wait here for assistance' sign walked straight through to our usual spot.

Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Edward and -to my disappointment- Tanya were already seated and chatting happily together. Judging by Emmett's sheepish expression, they were making fun of his new haircut.

They all looked up as we approached and Alice smiled and waved,

"Hi everyone!" she said happily as we both sat down in the two spare seats. To my dismay one was next to Jasper, which Alice quickly took, and the other next to Tanya.

"Wow Bella, it feels like I haven't seen you in weeks." Said Emmett, grinning at me from across the table.

"Well that's probably because you haven't." I replied laughing at him. To me the laughter sounded false, but no one else seemed to notice. Conversation flowed on well after that and it was quite easy for me listen rather than participate, or rather _look_ like I was listening.

I did notice however that Edward kept glancing over at me every few minutes, as though he was checking whether or not I was ok. I ignored it as best as I could, which was quite well considering that I had Tanya's voice in my ear the entire night. She was a very talkative person.

It wasn't until we had moved onto dessert that I really had to pay any real attention.

"Oh Bella," said Emmett with a sly grin, "I was walking home a week or so ago minding my own business, when I happened to glance into 'The Club' on my way past, where I saw a rather attractive man and someone that looked very much like _you_ sitting next to him." I suddenly realized what he was talking about and turned bright red. Please don't bring that up now I thought desperately.

Everyone's eyes were on me now as I stared determinedly over their heads, avoiding their gaze. "That was Tom from work," I said stiffly, "He asked me to keep him company that night that's all. He had a bad day." I avoided everyone's eye as I said it though. I was a very bad liar.

"Oh really," said Emmett, his smirk broadening, "well if you consider snogging to be one of your regular ways to comfort people when they've had a hard day, I'd hate to think what you'd do if someone they knew died." I turned a brighter red still as Jasper and Rosalie started grinning at my obvious embarrassment.

I was hoping to entirely forget that that night had happened. Just over a week ago I had still been in a kind of depression over Edward and Tanya's recent investment into real estate and Tom had been asking me to go out with him for about a month already. That time I had said yes. He was a nice enough guy, but all I really saw in it was a way to distract me from Edward.

Waking up the next day with a splitting headache and a colleague from work lying next to you isn't the best way for things to work out. I had had to very nicely tell Tom it was a mistake. I hadn't seen him around my part of the office very often since.

Alice appeared to be quite surprised and she was looking at me in a slightly affronted way as if she was disappointed that she was not hearing this from me. Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie were still grinning as I grew redder and redder, but I couldn't bring myself to look at Edward or Tanya.

"That dessert seems to be taking quite a while doesn't it," I said nervously, though I knew that I had almost no hope in getting out of this, "I might just go and see where its a-"

"Oh no you don't," said Emmett happily, "You're not getting out of it that easily. Do you have any idea how hard it has been to wait until we were all together for me to tell anyone?" I lowered myself back into my seat and stared down at my clean spoon.

"So Tom did you say?" asked Emmett in that annoyingly smug voice, "He looked like a nice fellow. Good kisser?" I didn't reply, just gritted my teeth as I stared down at my spoon. Unfortunately I could see Emmett's smile reflected on its surface.

He went on as though I had answered, "Hmm, you guys were getting pretty friendly there hey? That must have made poor Tom's day much better don't you think? It was really very considerate of you Bella, to comfort him like that." Alright now it was going a bit far.

"We just had dinner alright." I said stiffly, wanting to dig myself a hole and live in it forever. I had enough trouble talking about this sort of thing with Alice in the privacy of my own home, let alone with six other people in the middle of a restaurant.

"Ahh, dinner aye. Odd place for dinner, 'The Club'. I didn't think that they served anything that wasn't five percent alcohol." Jasper sniggered slightly as my cheeks flushed a shade darker. Unfortunately Emmett continued. He seemed to be making the most of this. I had the feeling that he wanted to get something out of me.

"Walk you home did he, after your nice friendly dinner at 'The Club'?"

"He _drove_ me home yes." I said stiffly. There was no harm in admitting that much, though I had a feeling that Emmett knew that he'd done more than drive me home.

"Had work the next day did you?" asked Emmett, in a voice that was flooded with sarcasm.

"Yes." I said shortly. All of his questions were getting me nervous.

"Ahh so did you walk? Your truck was still at my garage getting its fuel pump fixed that week if I remember rightly." I had no idea where he was going with this.

"No I didn't walk. Tom drove m-" I clapped my hand over my mouth as I realized what I had just said. I stared at Emmett in horror as his smirk turned into a huge grin.

"Bella got laid!" yelled Emmett happily. My face that had been momentarily drained of colour turned a brilliant shade of red again. I put my face in my hands as I saw a group of people two tables away turn to look curiously in our direction.

Emmett was still howling with laughter at finally getting the truth out of me. Even Jasper was laughing slightly and Rosalie was grinning at my obvious embarrassment. Alice was looking at me around my hands with an incredulous expression, either wondering why I was so embarrassed or why I hadn't told her. Or both.

I peeked out from between my fingers and saw that Tanya had an annoying smile on her face and even Edward was smiling slightly. He wasn't as bad as any of the others though. He obviously knew that this wasn't a topic that I felt comfortable with discussing. Emmett didn't take anyone's comfort into consideration however if it meant that he would get to embarrass me into the next century.

When Emmett had finally calmed down enough to form a distinguishable sentence he said happily, "Haha! I've wanted to get you on one like that for _so_ long! It's almost impossible to find out when you've had s-"

"Alright that's enough!" I said loudly, stopping him mid sentence. "Can we please not discuss this?! You got me ok, let's move on." I was still slightly flushed.

"But we _never_ discuss your sex life Bella!"

"We never discuss anyone's!" I said loudly, embarrassed out of my mind.

"Yeah well, we're boring aren't we? We've all only got one option here. You're the only single one! And besides, it's more fun because you absolutely hate to talk about it!" I groaned.

"Please don't," I said weakly. Emmett opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off before he could say anything,

"Alright Emmett, leave Bella alone. I think she's had enough embarrassment for one night." I looked up at Edward in relief. Emmett looked upset but didn't push it. I mouthed "_thankyou_" at Edward who shot me my favourite crooked smile then turned back to Jasper to discuss an exam that they had the next week.

I sank lower into my chair as Alice raised her eyebrows questioningly at me. She'd met Tom a couple of times when she'd come to get me from work and heard me complain about his continued fraternisation. I definitely wasn't going to tell her the reasons behind my behaviour however.

I spent the rest of the night in silence only speaking when I was spoken to. I wasn't really in the mood to be around people. Then finally the manager came to our table with our cheque and the next thing I knew, I was in the car with Jasper and Alice. Jasper had had a few drinks at dinner and was going to spend the night at Alice's.

I'd managed to go the whole night without being alone with Edward _or_ Tanya. As I sat in the backseat of the car and listened to Alice and Jasper chatting, my mind drifted once again to Edward's request.

What _was _I going to do? There was definitely a part of me that wanted to do it, for Edward. But the other part, the dominating part, cringed at just the _words_ pregnant, me or I in a sentence together.

"Bella? Bella!" said Alice's voice loudly, breaking me out of my reverie. I looked up at her and saw that we were parked outside my apartment block already. Time seemed to have been passing very quickly this afternoon.

"Right, sorry. Thanks for driving me home." I said quickly as I reached for the door handle.

"Bye Bella." Said Jasper happily, as I made to get out of the car.

"I'll speak to you guys some time soon." I said waving as I closed the door behind me. I was walking past the bonnet of the car when I heard the driver's door open and Alice came hurrying up to me.

"Hey," she said in a concerned voice, "you alright?" I smiled and nodded.

"Yea of course I am, just thinking; you know."

"Alright then," she said, "you call me whenever you need to talk ok?" I nodded as she hugged me, and then danced back towards the car. I waited outside the door to my apartment block and waved as they drove down the street.

My mind immediately fell back into thinking again as I headed up the stairs and unlocked my apartment door. I glanced at the clock on my way into the kitchen. Eleven-thirty. I frowned and leaned against the kitchen bench. I knew that I should probably go to bed but I wasn't tired and it was a Saturday after all; I could sleep in.

I stared around the conjoined lounge room and kitchen, thinking. It was only a small apartment so there wasn't really much that I could do. One bedroom, one bathroom and a lounge room and kitchen combined, but I was sure that my mind was too distracted to sleep.

My eyes fell upon the laptop that Charlie had given to me as a graduation present and I suddenly got an idea. I walked over to the small desk that it sat on and waited for it to boot up. I tapped my foot in frustration as it slowly came to life. I definitely needed to consider getting a new one.

When my desktop finally came onto the screen I brought up Google and typed in _pregnancy_. As to be expected, I had hundreds of sites to choose from so I started browsing. I frowned as I began reading several sites on the different symptoms and stages and cringed at some of the more graphic descriptions.

I started feeling light headed after reading several sites so I thought that I'd lighten the search topic slightly and typed in _Artificial Insemination._ I was once again bombarded my hundreds of sights and sighed as I opened up the first one.

I was halfway through one called '_Can't Conceive?_' when a small tab popped up in the bottom right hand corner of my screen saying 'Renee; Online'. I frowned and clicked on it, bringing up an online chat.

"_Hey mum, what are you doing up so late?"_ It took her a moment to reply; Renee wasn't so good with technology.

"_Hi sweetie. I couldn't sleep and Phil's snoring so I thought that I'd come out here to get some fresh air. What are _you_ doing up so late?"_

"_Just doing some research." _I smiled at the thought of her reaction if I told her what it was that I was researching.

"_What on?"_ I sighed; now I would have to come up with a convincing lie. I wasn't sure that I could lie even if it was in text. I was scrolling through my options in my head when a thought came to me. Why not just tell her? I mean I would probably do it at some stage and this was the perfect opening to do so. Telling her over the internet was probably a bit cruel, but knowing her she would call me up the moment that I told her what I was researching. Better not let her jump to conclusions about why I would be researching it though.

"_Ha, you'll probably have a minor freak out when I tell you, just to warn you in advance. But don't worry it's not what you'll think" _I added a smiley face just to let her know that I wasn't being too serious.

"_I think I can handle it."_

"_Artificial Insemination."_ I smiled as I imagined the expression that she was sure to have on her face by now. It took her even longer to reply than usual which had me actually laughing out loud. I seemed to be in very strange moods since this morning. Maybe I was hysterical?

"_Bella... what? Is this for an article that you're writing?"_ How was I going to say this?

"_Nope."_ I felt slightly guilty now; I was being too blasé about telling her.

"_Hang on."_ I waited and wasn't entirely surprised when the phone started ringing. I picked it up; already knowing who was going to be on the other end.

"Mum?" I said, almost certain that it would be her calling; especially considering that it was past midnight.

"Bella? I'm very confused here. It's hard to tell whether or not you're being serious when I can't hear your voice. Did you mean that you're researching this for yourself?" she sounded incredulous, like she didn't know whether her eyes were deceiving her. I walked over to the couch as she spoke and sat down.

Renee knew, probably only second to Alice or Edward, that children was way down the bottom on my list of priorities and quite high up on my list of 'I don't really want to think about its'.

"Yes mum, but before you jump to conclusions please remember that I told you that it isn't what you're thinking." I waited, regretting my decision to tell her already, and over the internet of all things. I felt like slapping myself.

"Bella I don't understand! Can you_ please_ explain?" I took a deep breath.

"Alright, yes I am researching it for me, but no it's not for myself exactly." Ok that sounded ridiculous even to me.

"You're not making any sense! Bella you're twenty one! You _do_ realise, you don't need to be thinking about these things yet."

"Mum!" I said loudly, stopping her before she could continue, "just let me explain ok?" I ran my free hand through my hair as I attempted to figure out how best to tell her.

"Earlier today I went over to Edward's and he and I talked about some stuff. You know how he and Tanya have been married for about a year now right? Well," I said quickly, before she could answer; I was on a roll here and I wanted to get telling her out of the way, "he told me that he and Tanya went and had some tests done the other day and it turns out that Tanya can't have kids."

"Bella!" said Renee loudly, forcing me to stop, "that doesn't mean that he wants _you_ to do anything! I would have thought that you of all people wo-"

"Mum, Edward _asked_ me to, and I was just researching what it would mean." There was silence on the other end of the line. I was pretty sure that Renee hadn't been expecting that.

"He _asked_ you to?" she said softly. I sighed.

"Yes."

"Bella, do you have any idea what he's asking!?" she said incredulously, "That's not just an everyday request!"

"Yes I do understand, why do you think I've put so much thought into it?"

"I'm surprised at Edward! He would be the last person that I would expect to ask such a big thing of his friend."

"I think that Tanya may have had a lot to do with it." I said slightly bitterly, "But Edward _is_ my best friend and I told him that I would think about it."

"But Bella, you're twenty one!"

"I know."

"This isn't something that _they_ should be considering I would have thought!"

"I know. I wasn't expecting it either."

"Do you have any idea what a commitment that is?"

"Yes."

"I wouldn't have expected you of all people to consider it!"

"Neither would I." She was speaking so fast that I could hardly get an answer in.

"You do know that you would be going through this with no benefit on your part."

"Yes."

"A whole nine months!"

"Yes."

"That you would have to give up a part of you?"

"_Yes_!"

"How stressful it would be?!"

"Yes!"

"How uncomfortable the situation may get?"

"_YES!"_

"Have you decided whether you're going to do it yet?"

"Yes!"

I froze. What had I just said? There was silence on the other end of the line. Had I just said that I would do it? I sat very still as I stared, unblinkingly into the blank television screen. I had been attempting to figure out an answer to that question all day, thought so hard about it and still not been able to come up with an answer, yet I had just been able to answer then in a split second.

I contemplated it for a moment. I had listened to Renee list of all of the negative things about the situation, and there were a lot of them, and had still answered yes. It was like those quick reaction tests, where your instinctive answer was supposed to usually be the right one, or the one that you felt was right. And as I thought about it after saying it out loud, I realised that it _was_ right. It felt right. I would do anything for Edward.

"What?" Came Renee's shocked whisper in my ear.

"I-" my voice sounded hoarse; I cleared my throat, "I'm... going to do it." My voice sounded shocked as well, as though _I_ didn't fully understand why I was saying it.

"Bella... are you sure? You have only had one day to think about it, it's not an everyday decision." She sounded anxious. I could tell that she didn't exactly like my decision too much. She was only thinking of my wellbeing; not Edwards.

"I..." I stumbled over my words as my mind attempted to control the vast amount of thoughts that were swirling through my head at my sudden pronouncement. The one thing that I _did_ know was that I _wasn't_ thinking about whether or not I had made the right decision. I knew that it was the right decision.

"Yes. I am sure." I said, still in that stunned voice.

"Bella it's very late," as soon as she said it I was suddenly aware of how tired I was, "I think that you should talk to Alice again ok? You need to talk to someone face to face."

"Ok..." I said, yawning, and not really paying attention to what she was saying anymore.

"I want you to call me tomorrow ok? You should probably talk to Edward and Tanya again as well." I nodded, but my mind was fuzzy and I didn't even register that she couldn't see me.

**Well I hope that you guys liked it. Please let me know and I'll update as soon as I get some nice reviews.**


	4. Time to Tell

**HI! I'm back again. Thanks very much to everyone who liked the last chapter. This one should be interesting I hope. I spent a lot of time on it so I hope you enjoy.**

**Chapter 4: Time to Tell**

I was suddenly woken by the sound of the phone ringing somewhere around my left ear. I rolled over, but there wasn't quite enough couch to allow me to do so and I fell hard onto the ground, cracking my head on the coffee table. I groaned as I attempted to get my bearings as my eyes were still half asleep and my head aching.

I managed to get my hands on the phone and press the talk button.

"Hello?" I said sleepily, while I rubbed my eyes with my spare hand.

"Hey Bella! What's up with you? You sound doped up or something." Said Emmett's loud voice in my ear.

"Oh, hi Emmett. I only just woke up." I admitted, groggily, as I heaved myself up off the ground.

"Woh! Serious? Do you have any idea what time it is?" I glanced up at the clock. It was one in the afternoon. Wow.

"Umm. Yeah. I just saw. What are you calling for?" I said as I stumbled my way into the kitchen and splashed my face with water from the sink.

"Well, we're all going over to Edward and Tanya's in about half an hour to play cards and stuff. Just making sure that you'd be there?" There was never really a question about whether or not we _wanted_ to come when it came to our group; it was just a question of whether we were able.

"Umm ok, sure." Is said, still slightly disorientated from just waking up. "I'll be there."

"Cool! I'll see you soon then." He said enthusiastically.

"Ok bye."

I pressed the end call button and slid the phone along the kitchen bench so that it ended up near its cradle.

I groaned again and put my face in my hands, blinking furiously. My head was throbbing from where I had wacked it on the coffee table and my back wasn't too crash hot either after spending the night on the couch.

Ok first thing was first; shower. I made my way to the bathroom and went about the normal rituals of getting ready.

I made my way back out to the kitchen about fifteen minutes later, fully dressed, to get some pain killers for the egg on the back of my head. I was just rinsing a glass out at the sink when I saw that my laptop was still on from last night.

I headed over to it and spotted a pop up, telling me that Renee had sent me an instant message this morning at two o'clock. Dam, had I really been up that late? I opened up the message.

"_Bella. You seemed half asleep on the phone so I let you go. I really want you to think about this some more now that you're fully awake ok? Please give me a call once you've managed to talk to Alice and maybe Edward. Don't go making any decisions too quickly. Consider everything ok? Remember that it may not be as simple as it sounds, but I know that you'll make the right decision; you always do. I love you. Mum, Xoxo."_

I sighed. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. Did she really think that I hadn't put enough consideration into this? She didn't know that it had been the one and only thing on my mind for the last twenty four hours. I had even dreamed about it! I'm guessing that that means that I've been thinking about it _too_ much.

To tell the truth, I was trying hard not to think about the whole 'what I was going to go through' part of the equation and merely focusing on the 'helping Edward' aspect of it all. The pregnancy thing still scared me a little. Ok a lot.

I shutdown the computer and headed into the kitchen to make myself a piece of toast to eat on my way over to Edwards. I was just grabbing my keys and wallet; with a piece of toast stuck in my mouth, when I decided that I should probably take something around. Edward may have money, but that didn't mean that I shouldn't be polite.

I opened the pantry and frowned at how empty it was. I would definitely have to go shopping tomorrow after work. I grabbed a lonely looking packet of chips and then let myself out of my apartment, struggling to get the door locked with keys, wallet, chips and a piece of toast to balance.

I jogged down the stairs and climbed into my truck. Unfortunately there was more traffic on the road than I had anticipated for a Sunday; something to do with an accident at the main traffic lights in the city according to the radio, so when I pulled up at Edward's I still hadn't had time to eat my toast.

I wandered over to the front door and was just reaching up to press the doorbell when the handle turned and Edward appeared, smiling, in the doorway. He quickly appraised my appearance and raised an eyebrow when he spotted my toast.

"Unusual choice of lunch?" he said, still with an eyebrow raised.

"I just woke up, ok?" I said, rolling my eyes as he started grinning. I made to get past him and he let me inside; still grinning. I walked into the living room with Edward at my rear, and found that Rosalie and Emmett were already there. I wandered in and sat down as Emmett guffawed;

"Ha, you actually did just wake up! I thought you were joking." I poked my tongue out at him and continued eating. I'm really mature.

"What are you doing sleeping in so long? We didn't get home from dinner that late did we?" asked Rosalie, incredulously.

"Nah, I was speaking to Renee for ages; fell asleep on the couch." I explained.

"What was your mum doing up so late? And why would she call you that late at night?" asked Emmett sceptically.

"She said that Phil was snoring, and she didn't call me at first. I was on the computer researching some stuff when she came online and we figured it would be easier to talk if she just rang."

"What were you researching?" asked Rosalie in genuine interest. Why did everyone have to ask that question!? I could feel my cheeks starting to warm slightly already as I said,

"Just some stuff for a story, nothing major." My cheeks were starting to flush slightly. Why did I have to be such a bad lire? Emmett was just noticing my increase in colour when I was saved by the arrival of Alice and Jasper. He was still looking at me curiously as I turned gratefully to greet them.

As usual Alice bounded into the room with far too much enthusiasm and waved at everyone. Jasper and Edward followed her into the room, looking very subdued in comparison.

"Why are you eating toast in the middle of the day?" asked Alice, without so much as a preliminary hello. I sighed in frustration and repeated,

"I was up late last night talking to Renee and I only just woke up." Judging by the knowing look that she gave me as she and Jasper sat down, she had a fair idea what we had been talking about.

Just as Edward was sitting down and arguing with Emmett over what type of poker we should play, Tanya came in from the kitchen with two plates of sandwiches. She put them down on the large coffee table that sat between all three lounges and went to go and sit next to Edward.

I tried not to notice as she put her hand on his leg. Instead I focused on the argument now going on between the three boys. It took them a good five minutes to finally decide that we would play 'Texas hold em' and it was only because Rosalie finally got irritated enough to threaten them, that we started playing.

As usual, after about an hour Jasper, Edward and Alice had significantly larger piles of chips than the rest of us. It was always the way it went when we played cards. Jasper could always tell when you were bluffing and Alice had this uncanny ability to know when she was going to get the cards _she_ wanted and Edward seemed to know what cards _everyone_ else had. I swear they cheated. Like card counting or something.

It didn't really bother me that I never won; we weren't playing with real money after all, but Emmett hated loosing and when he finally lost his last hand he threw his cards across the table and stormed into the kitchen. Tanya soon followed, laughing her annoying laugh. I tried not to look too bitter as I watched her leave the room.

I knew that I was very biased when it came to Tanya, but I was sure that everyone else must find her annoying as well. The way she never shut up, or her annoying false laugh, or the way that she gave such blonde comments and the fact that she never stopped flaunting her relationship with Edward every where she went.

Rosalie bailed in the next round to go and make sure that Emmett wasn't going to break anything and I threw my last chip in to the pot as she walked out. As usual they all saw straight through me and I ended up walking out of the room soon after to go and find everyone else; leaving them to compete in silence.

I found all three of them in the kitchen talking about when Rosalie was completing her course at college. She was coming to live up here permanently with Emmett in a couple of months when she finally finished up.

I sat in there with them for a while, not really listening to what they were saying. Instead I found myself watching Tanya. The way she walked or talked and how she said certain things. I knew that if I was going to do this, it definitely wasn't going to be for her; although it would benefit her in the long run. It was all for Edward.

Every time I ran over my decision in my head I shuddered involuntarily. There was definitely a part of me that wanted not to do this, and now that I had made a decision that part of me seemed to be screaming for me to change my mind, but the other part of my mind was set. People always said that I was stubborn so it looked like I must be; even with myself.

I was firm in my resolve and I was sure that neither Renee nor Alice could change my mind. I would just have to grit my teeth and try not to think about the horrible things that may come out of doing it. I knew that Edward hadn't actually expected me to say yes. I was sure that he was only asking to humour Tanya; but he had said himself that it would make him extremely happy.

Edward knew me better than anyone in this house and he definitely wouldn't see my answer coming. Maybe that showed just how out of character this was going to be for me. Of course he would protest a little at first, make sure that I really, _really_ wanted to do it; but eventually he would accept it.

As I watched Tanya chatting animatedly to Emmett, I wondered how she would react. She hadn't actually said anything to me about it. She probably went out of the house the day that Edward asked me just so that she wouldn't have to do it herself. That seemed like her. She probably wouldn't appreciate how hard it would be for me; she didn't know me well enough to understand that the whole parenting thing wasn't my style.

Then there was the whole procedure itself; I didn't even understand how you went about doing any of this. Had they already looked into it? Made any small arrangements? Or were they just asking and then going to start the technical side of it later? I was pretty sure that I couldn't just have someone else's kid then walk up to them and say 'Here! Take it!' there was definitely more to it than that.

We were going to have to have a whole heap of arrangements, like how often I would be over here and if they would help me with expenses and everything. I was going to lay a few ground rules myself; I knew that I was going to be really awkward with them cooing over me every few seconds. I reckon that I would cringe if they so much as looked at me. I embarrass easily.

I heard a loud groan coming from the lounge room and everyone hurried in to investigate. Alice was sitting with her chin in one hand, staring at a significantly reduced pile of chips, while Jasper and Edward smirked at her.

"Ha. What's up little sis? Out of luck?" said Emmett happily. While he hated loosing himself, he loved making the most of other people's misery. Alice shot him a terrible glare as he sat down, before throwing in her final bet. Edward and Jasper both matched her confidently and laughed as she threw down her cards and stalked into the kitchen.

Everyone else stayed to watch Edward and Jasper battle it out, but I jumped to my feet and hurried after Alice; seeing an opportunity to talk to her alone. She had her head stuck in the immensely oversized fridge, pouring herself a glass of water, when I found her.

She jumped when she closed the fridge door and found me standing right behind it; spilling half of her water on the floor.

"Bugger! You scared me." She said frowning around the kitchen for something to wipe up the mess. The kitchen was so big that it was a wonder that she could have even found a glass in the first place.

I started to help her look in all of the cupboards, in search of some paper towels. We were only halfway across the kitchen when she spoke,

"So I take it that I know why you spoke to your mum until some ungodly hour of the morning?"

"I think that you do." I said slowly as I frowned at a complicated looking machine that took up a whole cupboard on its own.

"What did she think?" said Alice, poking around inside the drawers.

"Well she basically told me every negative thing that could come out of the situation." I said nonchalantly as I flicked some of the switches on the machine; attempting to figure out what on earth it did.

"Hmmm, I thought she might. She's worried about you."

"Yeah I know." I sighed, as I closed the door on the machine; still completely bewildered as to its function, and continued my way along the row of cupboards.

"She is right though Bella; you know that?" said Alice in a serious voice as she picked up what looked like a two handled fork and frowned at it.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, I know you almost as well as anyone; and this isn't something that you would be comfortable with." She said, still inspecting the supposed fork.

I didn't answer, not sure what to say to that, and merely opened a new cupboard.

"What did she tell you to do?" she asked, continuing on as though she didn't need me to speak.

"Come and speak to you." I said wryly. It was the truth, maybe not the whole truth, but still the truth.

"But you already have. Did you tell her that?" she said glancing over at me with a confused expression on her face.

"Yes," I admitted, sheepishly. I was going to have to tell her now.

She placed the strange fork back in its draw and moved onto another cupboard. There was silence for a moment as we continued to examine our friend's kitchen. I had completely forgotten what we were looking for.

"So... what else did you talk about?" she asked, as though this would help her to understand why Renee would direct me to her.

"Alice," I said quickly, gathering up the courage to tell her.

"Yes..." she said slowly. She could obviously feel how tense I was, it was reflected in my voice.

"I'm going to do it." The sound of breaking glass echoed around the vast kitchen. I whipped my head around, banging it on the inside of the cupboard on exactly the same place where I had hit it on the coffee table this morning. I swore and gripped my scalp, as I looked around quickly for the source of the noise.

Alice appeared to have accidently smashed one of Tanya's good wine glasses out of shock at what I had just told her. She seemed completely oblivious to it however as she stared across the kitchen at me, her eyes wide.

"Bella," she said in a soft, hesitant voice, "are you sure?"

I nodded at her vaguely, more concentrated on my throbbing head. I pulled my hand away and saw a small amount of blood staining my fingers.

"Dam it," I said angrily to myself, as Alice snapped out of her shock and hurried over to make sure that I was ok. She grabbed the dish cloth off of the sink and placed it on the gash just above my right ear.

"Yeah I'm sure." I said, with my eyes closed, as I waited for the pain to ease.

"Bella this is big, you guys need to discuss it properly."

"I know." I said simply. We were interrupted by the sounds of five people heading towards the kitchen. A very happy looking Jasper made his way inside first and said loudly,

"Champion!" His grin quickly disappeared as he took in the scene inside the kitchen. Water and a smashed crystal wine glass on the floor and Alice holding a bloody looking cloth to my head. Edward came in quickly and rushed over to me.

"Bella! Are you alright? What happ-" But he was cut off as Tanya spotted the smashed glass on the floor.

"Oh no! What happened!" she shrieked, more concerned about the glass than the blood obviously coming out of my head. I ignored her and tried to listen to Alice explain.

"I'm sorry Edward, I accidently knocked it over when I was looking for a paper towel to wipe up the water, then Bella wacked her head on the counter top when she came to help." Everyone had made their way into the kitchen now and I was starting to feel slightly cramped even though it was a massive room.

"That's fine Alice, it doesn't matter. Bella come and sit down ok, that's bleeding a bit." He grabbed my hand and led me out of the kitchen and into the dining room. Rosalie went to help Tanya clean up the mess and everyone else followed us out of their way. Edward sat me down at the top of the table, with Alice still gripping the cloth to my head.

Emmett and Jasper crowded around to make sure that I was ok as Edward left to get his medical kit. Even through all of the confusion I could still see the slight surprise on Alice's face; she was looking at me in a concerned sort of way as though she wasn't sure whether I was completely with it. I knew that she would act like that when I told her. She had never expected me to say yes.

Edward hurried back into the room a minute later, carrying a large box. He slammed it down onto the table next to me and began rummaging through its contents.

"Jasper, would you mind seeing how deep it is?" he asked, frowning as he continued to shuffle around the contents of the box.

Jasper switched places with Alice and began pulling my hair out of the way to inspect the gash.

"Guys its fine," I said, feeling more annoyed at myself for being so clumsy than anything else, "You know that I do it all the time. It's not even deep!" They both ignored me and continued with what they were doing. I groaned.

Emmett grinned at me from where he was leaning against the wall and said, "Only you could manage to injure yourself when there were no dangerous weapons around." I glared at him, unable to move because of Jasper's restraining hand on my head.

"It's not deep. No stitches or anything; you probably can only try and bandage it to stop the bleeding." Said Jasper loudly to Edward over the top of my head. Edward nodded and finally pulled out a small white plaster from his kit and stood in front of me.

I rolled my eyes at his need to be so ideal. He smiled at me, but ignored my protests; leaving me to sit with my arms folded in annoyance. It didn't even hurt any more. Tanya and Rosalie came out of the kitchen just as Edward said in a pleased voice, "There, all done."

He patted me on the head and began packing everything away. Jasper chuckled and headed over to stand beside Alice, who was now apologising to Tanya about the glass.

"Don't worry Alice, I'll just buy another one during the week." She said, waving her hand in the air like it was nothing.

"Can I get up yet?" I asked Edward who was still smiling at me.

"You know Bella, you really are going to have to get used to not being able to do everything yourself one of these days." Before I could retort, he shot me a crooked smile and dashed from the room to put the huge box away.

"Well I think that we've had enough excitement for one day." Said Rosalie as Edward walked back into the room. "It's getting late and I've got to get up early to get back to campus." Emmett didn't look too pleased about leaving but allowed Rose to grab his hand.

"Yeah, we should probably get going to if you guys don't mind." Said Jasper, standing up straight and reaching out to shake Edward's hand.

"Thanks so much for a great afternoon." Said Rosalie, waving goodbye to everyone. I stood up and followed them all as they made their way to the front of the house.

"I'll get going to then," I said turning around to face Edward and Tanya.

"Oh no you don't," said Edward firmly, "you're not going anywhere just yet. I don't know how hard you hit your head so I don't want you driving for another half hour or so just to be safe."

I opened my mouth to protest but he was already walking away, a smile on his face. I glowered after him but made no move to leave anyway. Emmett laughed loudly at the look on my face as he and Rose got into their car and backed away, waving.

Alice hurried over to give me a hug and whispered, "Call me," in my ear before waving and joining Jasper as they climbed into their car. Edward, Tanya and I all stood in the drive and waved until both cars were out of sight. I turned to argue with Edward but was brought up short when I realised that the three of us were alone for the first time since Edward had spoken to me.

They both turned and headed back inside and I followed, freaking out slightly about whether or not I should talk to them. It might be the last chance I got for quite a while without actually going out of my way to do so.

We headed back into the lounge room and sat down. Tanya began cleaning up the mess on the coffee table immediately and Edward asked,

"You hungry or anything? You've eaten nothing but a piece of toast all day as far as I know."

"I'm fine." I said simply, feeling slightly nervous. Why was this so hard? Before Tanya had come along I had been able to talk to Edward about anything, no matter how awkward it was. I had told him about my first kiss, when I was embarrassed about something that I had done in PE and even when I had lost my virginity. He had even stayed the night at my place plenty of times, slept in my room, because Charlie knew that it would be no different from Alice staying over.

There was a bit moment of silence in the room as Tanya continued to collect the mess of chips into neat little piles. Just do it. You're going to have to talk to him about it at some point.

"So Edward," I said awkwardly, "Umm... I wanted to talk to you about what you asked me yesterday." He frowned slightly at my tone, as though he didn't understand why I was so tense. Tanya's head turned to look at me and she sat down on the armrest of the couch.

"Bella, we don't have to discuss anything if you don't want to. Forget I asked." He ignored the look that Tanya shot at him and I pretended not to notice.

"Well, I was talking to my mum about it last night," I said, ignoring his attempts to stop me. I had to get this out, "and I thought about it a lot."

"Bella, you don't need to think about anything. I told you there's not need to-"

"I'll do it." I said quickly, interrupting him mid speech. He stared at me in complete and utter shock, his mouth slightly open. Tanya however let out a little squeak and covered her mouth with a hand, before sliding quickly along the couch so that she was sitting tight up against him.

"Bella... I don't... know what to say," he said slowly, still staring at me. I sighed.

"You don't have to say anything Edward; I've thought about this _a lot_." He blinked, then to my surprise turned to Tanya and said softly,

"Do you mind if I talk to Bella alone for a moment hon?" Tanya looked suspiciously at him, then at me. She opened her mouth to protest but Edward merely said, "Please." She glanced between us again, before walking into the kitchen.

I stared after her, slightly confused as to why Edward would ask her to leave. When I finally looked back at him he was standing up. He walked around the coffee table and sat down on its edge so that he was right in front of me.

I opened my mouth to ask him why she was leaving but I quickly forgot what I was going to say when he leaned in closer to me and all of my thoughts were lost when I stared into his eyes. His breath was intoxicating.

"Bella," he frowned slightly as though he was trying to figure out how to put something, "I... when I asked you that yesterday, I didn't actually expect you to say yes... I... well... I don't want you to feel like you have to do it just because I asked or anything." He stared at me seriously. It took all of my will power to pull my thoughts together and understand what he was saying, but I was still incapable of tearing my gaze away from his.

"I know this is going to sound stupid, but remember that pact that we made when we were twelve? About us having to do anything that the other asked, if it was in their best interests?" I thought for a moment and then couldn't help but start laughing when I realised what he was getting at.

"Bella, I'm being serious. That may have become a habit; you doing everything I asked of you, and I just want you to know that... that... I never actually- even one tiny little bit- expected you to say yes when I asked you."

I stopped laughing when I realised that he really meant what he was saying.

"Bella, I know you maybe better than anyone on earth in some aspects and I know that this would be the last thing that you would say yes to for me. You would probably kill yourself to save me before doing this." He smiled slightly as I glared at him. He was over exaggerating just a little bit.

"Look," I said taking a deep breath, "you have no idea how hard and long I've thought about this over the past twenty four hours. Probably too much for it to be healthy, and I've listened to every single negative aspect of it come from Renee and Alice but I still came up with the same answer. And you're right, I _don't_ like the whole '_I'm going to have a baby_' part of it at all, but if it means helping you- giving you the best gift that I could ever give- then I want to do it. I know that you would give me sperm or whatever if it was the other way round." I shook my head slightly at the thought of that ever happening, but it was possible.

"Bella, I don't think that me giving you _sperm_ and you having my baby are exactly the same thing." I rolled my eyes.

"Edward, please don't try to talk me out of this, I've had a hard enough time trying to convince myself. I don't need you trying to talk me out of it; all it'll do is waste valuable time because I will still come back to the same answer."

"No Bella. I'm not going to stop trying to talk you out of this, because I know you. I know that you don't want to have a baby even the slightest bit. Do you remember when Lauren in our grade got pregnant in our last year of high school?" I nodded, wondering where on earth he was going with this.

"Well... I watched your face every time you spotted her walking down a corridor, we even talked about it heaps when I stayed at your place and stuff and you basically told me that you cringed at the _thought_ of being pregnant." I huffed impatiently.

"Edward you know that this is different. When you think about it; it really isn't the same thing at all. I'm not actually having a kid myself. I'm not going to have to look after it, or stay up all night or get puked on. _You're_ going to have to put up with that one." I was saying it to convince myself as much as him. Edward closed his eyes and shook his head.

"You're really serious about this?" he asked, still with his eyes closed.

"Yeah Edward, I really am." There was a moment of silence then his face split into a wide smile and the next thing I knew he had grabbed me and was spinning me in circles around the room. I laughed and attempted to squirm free but he wouldn't let go.

"You are the best friend that anyone could ask for Isabella Swan." He said pulling me into a tight hug. I hugged him back fiercely, savouring the moment. Unfortunately Tanya chose that moment to re-enter the room and shrieked loudly as she realised that I had in fact agreed to do it.

Edward let me go as she hurried towards us and launched herself onto him. I stood and averted my eyes as they laughed together. They finally came back to their senses and Edward said loudly,

"Well! I guess we've got some stuff to talk about then." Tanya nodded happily and I smiled half heartedly at him. My momentarily good mood had been spoiled by Tanya's reappearance.

They sat back down together and I took my spot on the couch opposite them.

"So, have you guys looked into this at all?" I asked, thinking that we might as well get straight into it so that we could get the conversation over and done with.

"Well, the only research that we have done is enough to know what our options were once we found out that Tanya couldn't have a child." Explained Edward, suddenly business like.

"We know all about the different procedures that can be used for something like this and the different costs and what not, but nothing too much about the legal aspect of everything. Not that you'll need to worry about that; we'll sort all of the complicated stuff out." I nodded.

"Well, we'll have to organise a doctor and everything I guess," I said slowly. I didn't know how involved they were expecting me to be when it came to organising stuff.

"Don't worry Bella; we'll take care of all of that. All you need to do is look after yourself." He grinned at me and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Ok, but before we organise any dates or anything I want you guys to understand a couple of things ok?" I knew that I had to let them know how I felt about the situation, just a little bit.

"I'm not very comfortable with the pregnancy thing ok? I mean that, I won't feel comfortable with you guys touching me or staring at me all the time. I would prefer it if we could pretend that everything is normal as much as possible." Tanya didn't look too pleased at this but Edward nodded.

"Of course Bella, I knew that would be the case with you. Of course everything _won't_ be normal so we can't promise that we'll ignore you completely."

"Ok. Also Edward, I know that you will be obsessed with the idea of having to look after me. I'm a big girl and I can look after myself. I'll do all of my research and do everything that has to be done in order to have a healthy baby but you have to let me have a life. I'm not going to sit at home in bed all day and do nothing."

"Deal," he said seriously, "but only if I'm allowed to give you some extra money for food and stuff because you'll need to eat a lot more." I thought about it for a moment before agreeing,

"Deal,"

"Alright," said Edward moving on swiftly, "We will have to organise a doctor's appointment as soon as possible to get you checked out and everything and maybe get some dates sorted." He sounded excited. I knew that I had made the right decision then. The happiness in Edward's voice told me that much.

There was a another moment of silence then I finally said,

"Well then, my half hours up Edward; I'm allowed to drive myself home now. Unless there's anything else that we needed to talk about?" I looked between the two of them as they shook their heads. I grabbed my bag from under the coffee table where it had been sitting since I had arrived and got to my feet.

They followed me to the front door and out to my truck.

"We'll call you when we organise a date for an appointment." Said Edward.

"Alright then. I'll speak to you soon." Edward moved forward and pulled me into another grateful hug. I breathed in his scent and closed my eyes.

"Thank you so much." He whispered in my ear before kissing the top of my head and backing away to hold Tanya's hand.

I got quickly into the car, feeling slightly dazed and waved to them as I drove down the street and around the corner.

**End of another Chapter. I have to say that that was fairly long. Longest one yet. I think that I deserve a few reviews for that. :D Please guys. I'm not feeling very motivated to continue writing so if you want me to continue make sure you let me know. Thanks a lot for reading. I'll catch you later. Oh and one more thing. Please forgive me for not being precise about where they're living and everything. I live in Australia so I don't know much about where everything in America is!**


	5. Doctors and Discussions

**Hello again. Sorry I havn't updated in a while!! I do have an excuse. We couldn't log in for ages which was seriously annoying, then I had music camp so I wasn't even near my computer. This chapter is a little short, but I kinda had a mental block so please forgive me. ENJOY!**

**Chapter 5: Doctors and Discussions**

I took a deep breath once the house was out of sight and enjoyed the sudden freeness that I felt at getting all of that off of my shoulders. I knew that I still had plenty to think about and a lot of stuff to dread but telling them my decision had made me feel much better.

I parked my car in my usual spot and made my way back up to my apartment. I passed Mike; who lives in the apartment across from me, on my way up the stairs. I barely heard his bright, "Hello Bella," as I passed him and just managed to mumble a greeting before continuing up to my door.

Unfortunately Mike had taken to continually asking me how my day was whenever I saw him and had even asked me into his apartment for a drink the other night. He seemed like a nice enough guy but there was no way that I was getting involved in anything that he had in mind.

I locked my door behind me and remembered Alice's request to call her. I should probably call Charlie as well and tell him what was going on. That would be an interesting conversation. Renee would probably be sitting at home by the phone as well just waiting for me to call. I sighed; I was going to have a massive phone bill this week.

It was probably a good thing that Edward had offered to pay for some expenses. I didn't want his money _or_ his help but I knew that I would need it over the next few months. My empty cupboard was enough to prove that.

I grabbed my phone on the way into the lounge room and started making myself comfortable. I guessed that I should get the worst done with first so I glanced at the clock before calling Charlie's home number. I would have loved to be able to tell him in person. It would probably be kinder but I didn't have the time or the money to fly to Forks just to tell him something. I was just thinking that he wasn't going to answer when a breathless voice said,

"Hello?" Charlie sounded like he had just sprinted to the phone from all the way down the street.

"Hi dad," I said laughing as he started taking deep breaths, "you sound like you've just run a marathon." I heard the unmistakable sounds of Charlie sitting down on his favourite couch as he said,

"Hi Bells, I was in the shower and I didn't hear the phone ringing until I got out." I laughed again as he huffed out a deep breath.

"Just get home from the station?"

"Yeah, I feel like I haven't heard from you in months Bells. It's good to hear your voice." I smiled guiltily. I hadn't been in contact with anyone really since Edward and Tanya had bought their new home.

"I know, I'm sorry but I've been really busy with work lately and everything has kind of slipped my mind." Charlie grunted and I smiled at his familiar way of communicating.

"Well Bells, as long as you do keep in contact and don't disappear into the sunset then that's fine by me." I laughed again. We exchanged a few minutes of mindless chitchat before he finally said,

"So, not to sound like I don't want to talk to you or anything, but was there a reason for your call?" asked Charlie after a moment of silence. I shifted uncomfortably on the lounge. I wasn't really sure how he would take this.

"Well actually there was. I have something to tell you." Charlie grunted again as though to say 'well go on then'.

"Umm... well a few things have happened over the last couple of days and Edward, Tanya and I have made a couple of... err... decisions." I was beating around the bush here; stalling telling him for as long as possible.

"Ok..." said Charlie slowly. I could tell from his tone of voice that he didn't like where this was going. Serious conversations weren't really his forte. I think I got that from him.

"Well, we came to a decision that I'm going to... to... _do_ something for the two of them." I gritted my teeth as I waited for his reply.

"Right..." I was hoping for a bit more than that but oh well.

"I'm going to... be a surrogate for them." I winced when Charlie didn't reply and shrank back into the couch as though he was glaring at me from across the room.

"Isabella," Oh dear he used my full name, "Are you trying to tell me that you're _pregnant_!" He sounded really mad. Dam I should have explained myself better. I opened my mouth to correct him but he stormed on.

"Because if you are- the last that I heard you definitely _didn't_ have a boyfriend so you have a lot of explaining to do!" I winced again but quickly yelled into the phone,

"Dad! You've got the wrong idea let me explain!" I waited for a moment to make sure that he wasn't about to shout again and listened to the sounds of his furious breathing before I continued.

"Of course I'm not... _pregnant_," I sounded angry now, "Do you really think that I would be that stupid?"

"Bella, I don't understand!" I sighed; I seemed to be explaining a lot lately.

"No, it's ok. I didn't explain myself properly. I'm not like _already_ pregnant and going to give it to them or anything. Artificial Insemination." I waited, hoping that he would understand now rather than go on another rant.

"Oh," was all that he said. I waited for more, thinking that it was his turn to do the talking now.

"But... where has this come from? Since when have the two of them wanted kids so young? And why are you doing it?" He sounded really confused. I rolled over onto my side before answering.

"Well the other day Edward and Tanya went and got some fertility tests done and it turns out that Tanya can't have children." I waited to see if he wanted to say anything but he didn't so I went on, "Don't ask me why they are all of a sudden doing this because it was news to me as well. I had no idea that they were even considering starting a family. Then Edward asked me if I would do it for them. I dunno why; I guess that I was just his first thought or something and I think that Tanya had a bit to do with it but I think they considered doing it this way first because it would mean that the child would be at least one of theirs biologically." I stopped because I needed to draw breath and Charlie spoke.

"So... so... _you_ would biologically have a child?" He sounded baffled as though the very idea was way over his head.

"Well... if you want to look at it that way then yeah. But legally it definitely won't be." There was another silence.

"Did Edward and Tanya actually _ask_ you to do this?"

"Yep, well actually just Edward. He's done most of the talking." I frowned as I realised that Tanya actually hadn't actually said one word to me. Not even a thanks.

"Have you fully considered this? Talked properly to people about it?" He said gruffly. I could tell that he felt uncomfortable talking about this. Well that made two of us.

"I've talked to mum and Alice. And I also talked to Tanya and Edward again today."

"Oh... well then. I guess there's no point in arguing with you." I gaped at the opposite wall in shock.

"What? You're not going to try and talk me out of this?" I thought for sure that Charlie would be the hard one to convince.

"Of course I'm not exactly thrilled Bells. You are only twenty one; but I know that once you've made up your mind that there's no point in me trying to change it. You're as stubborn as a rock."

"Ha, I wonder where I get that from." He laughed then said,

"Umm... have you guys made any arrangements yet?"

"Not too many. They're organising a doctor's appointment at some time this week."

"Ok," there was another moment of silence during which I played with a hole in the couch, not quite sure what to say.

"So... do I... umm... get to see you?" I was shocked once again. I had been sure that Charlie would have wanted to stay well out of this. Possibly move to Alaska until it was all over.

"Umm... I guess if you really want." I said not quite sure if he was pulling my leg.

"Well Carlisle and Esme are still here so you guys should probably all come and visit at some stage." He sounded kind of awkward but I was genuinely touched.

"Well I'll talk to Edward about it and see what we can do."

"Alright then."

There was another slightly awkward silence. When I couldn't stand it any longer I said as cheerily as I could,

"Well I'd better get going. Renee will probably murder someone if I don't call her soon. I just thought that I had better tell you sooner rather than later."

"Yeah, I appreciate it Bells. Call me again when you get a chance ok?" I smiled.

"Course I will dad. I love you."

"Love you to Bells. Bye."

I stayed listening to the phone until he hung up and that annoying beeping sound made me pull the receiver away from my ear.

That had been much easier than I had been expecting. Sure if I hadn't stopped him mid rant I may have ended up bursting an ear drum but it had been easy to make him stop yelling. I threw the phone up in the air as I tried to figure out who to call next. I supposed that Renee was the obvious choice as she would be driving Phil mad.

I dialled her home number and wasn't surprised when it was picked up after just one ring. Astoundingly it was Phil who answered however.

"Oh hi Bella. It's about time you called. Renee has been sitting by the phone since she got home from work." I laughed as he went off to find her.

"Bella? I was worried that you had forgotten to call." She sounded flustered.

"Calm down mum. I've only just gotten home. We've been playing cards at Edward's all day." I rolled over again, settling down for a long conversation.

"Oh. Well did you manage to talk to Alice? You really should have gone to bed earlier; you were so tired last night. I wasn't sure if you were seeing sense."

"Mum, I'm still going to do it." I closed my eyes as she fell silent again and waited for her berating. I heard her take a deep breath before speaking.

"Bella, I don't know if you fully unders-"

"Mum, I've made up my mind. I know that you think that I'm making a mistake but can't you at least try to understand?"

Renee took another deep breath, "You're right Bella. I'm sorry. I'm being far too negative here. I know that you would do anything for Edward but I just think that this may be going a bit far."

"I _would_ do anything for Edward and this is something that I want to do. I mean in nine months I can go back to normal and act as though none of this ever happened. I can deal with nine months of uncomfort if it means that Edward will be happy for the rest of his life."

"Alright," said Renee slowly, "Alright. You've made up your mind and I can see where you're coming from but before you tell them yes just give it another few days to think it ove-"

"I've already told them today mum." I said slowly. I did feel slightly guilty for agreeing to do this before I had called her again.

"Oh," I scrunched my eyes closed at the tone of her voice. She sounded slightly hurt. "Well in that case I guess that I can't talk you out of it any more. You do know what's best for you Bella so I'm guessing that you are making the right decision. I may not fully understand but I will be here for you sweetie; whenever you want to talk about anything at all." I sighed in relief.

"Thanks mum. I really appreciate it." I said sincerely.

"Don't worry love. No matter what decisions you make I will always be here."

We talked for another ten minutes about nothing in particular until she finally said goodbye after making me promise to call her after the doctor's appointment and tell her everything.

When I finally hung up the phone I exhaled loudly and slumped backwards into the cushions. I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was nine-thirty. My throat felt parched from all of the continuous talking but I wanted to get all of this over with before I had a shower or anything so I quickly dialled Alice's home number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Alice; it's me," I said, sounding slightly croaky. I cleared my throat and tried again.

"Oh Bella, I was just starting to think that you wouldn't call." She sounded worried.

"Sorry, I've only just gotten off the phone to Renee and Charlie. I've been home for almost two hours now and I haven't been off the phone the entire time."

"So I take it that you talked to Edward and Tanya after we all left?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, I thought that it was as good a time as any."

"So what did they say?"

"Well Edward was very confused at first but when he finally figured out that I was being serious he practically jumped out of his skin." I laughed as I remembered his reaction.

"And Tanya?" I frowned again as I remembered her complete lack of gratitude.

"Well... she didn't actually say anything much at all. Not to me anyway." I started fiddling with the hole in the lounge again.

"Really? What was she too excited to think about it or something?" asked Alice sounding slightly shocked.

"Umm... I dunno, I guess something like that." I mumbled; not actually sure what the answer to that question was.

"Oh," said Alice. There was a moment of silence before she said in an excited voice, "Wow, so you're actually going to do this Bella!?" she sounded half excited, half dumbfounded.

"Yep,"

"Woh! So when is it happening? What did Charlie say? Have you organised anything yet? How did Renee react? Are you nervous? You're going to have to talk to your boss about this because you'll have to organise leave and everything. Oh! We'll have to go shopping!" she said all this very fast so I had to wait patiently for her to run out of breath.

"Slow down!" I said loudly before continuing, "I don't know when it's happening yet, Charlie was surprisingly alright with it, we are organising a doctor's appointment this week, Renee got over it eventually, I'm scared out of my mind, I hadn't thought about work so you just gave me something else to worry about and no we aren't going shopping!"

There was a moment of silence, and then we both started cracking up. The situation was just so strange and unusual that there wasn't much that we could do _but_ laugh. I knew that _I_ felt slightly giddy.

When we finally stopped laughing and I actually had a tear running down my cheek she said,

"Alright, I'm sorry. You're probably tired. We have heaps of time to talk about this later." Once again I only realised how tired I when she mentioned it. My eyes began to droop.

"Yeah thanks Alice. I'll talk to you later." I let out a huge yawn which made her laugh again as she said,

"Good night Bella."

"Night Alice,"

"I'll talk to you soon ok?"

"Yep sure," I said, yawning again as I hung up the phone.

I stumbled to the bathroom and had a warm shower which only made me sleepier. I barely cleaned my teeth before staggering to my bed where I collapsed on top of the covers and fell asleep immediately.

***

The next day went by surprisingly quickly. The office was extremely busy with people running everywhere and yelling at the top of their lungs. The hours seemed to be slipping away as I attempted to finish a story that I was working on while at the same time dealing with the fiasco outside _and_ trying not to think too much about Edward and Tanya. I was failing miserably at the last one.

One bad thing about the day going by so quickly was that I didn't get a chance to speak to my boss; not that I minded all that much. I was quite happy to put off that conversation for as long as possible. But before I knew it the office around me started to empty.

I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was five-thirty already. I hadn't even had a lunch break. I sighed and turned back to my computer. I really had to get this story finished so it looked like I would be working over time again.

About an hour later my boss stuck his head through my door.

"What are you still doing here?" I jerked around in my seat. I hadn't realised that anyone was still here.

"Oh sorry sir; I needed to get this article done and it was a bit busy today so I'm just finishing it now." He frowned at me.

"Bella, I admire your dedication, but you worked late almost every day last week. You really need to get some rest."

"I'm fine. I'll have this done in an hour or so then I'll go home." He nodded in approval before turning and heading home.

I didn't always understand my boss. Sometimes he could be the nicest person, like just then, but at other times he expected you to have a two thousand word story done in a day. His mood changed as suddenly as a bullet from a gun.

I shook my head and turned back to my computer again.

My hands were starting to cramp up and my eyes were stinging when the phone rang. I jumped again as the ringing echoed around the empty office. Who would be calling at this time?

I quickly answered it.

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly.

"Hi Bella? What are you still doing at the office!? I've tried your home number twice already." I glanced over at the clock again and saw that it was quarter to seven. Time really was flying by.

"Hi Edward; I've got a story that really needs finishing." I said; feeling slightly sheepish at being caught working back this late.

"Jeez. You were meant to finish at five. Finish up right now!" I almost laughed at how much he sounded like my mum but stopped myself just in time.

"I can't. I'm nearly done now and I need to be finished by tomorrow."

"Fine, but if I catch you working this late again I'll come round there and drag you home myself. You're not going to be able to work this late pretty soon you do realise?" I felt my cheeks warm slightly. I really had to get used to this being talked about.

"Yeah alright, alright. What are you doing calling me anyway?"

"Oh, well, we've organised a doctor's appointment for Thursday of this week." Butterflies suddenly erupted in my stomach, "Will that be ok for you?"

"Umm," I said hesitantly; I hadn't been expecting it to be so soon, "I think so. I'll just have to ask my boss but he should be alright with me taking a day off."

"Well just let me know if you can make it or not and we'll sort out arrangements then."

"Alright then."

***

Unfortunately the next day was much quieter and I had time to speak to my boss. Unluckily he was in a very good mood again and had no problem with me taking the day off on Thursday if it was to see a doctor but I hadn't been able to bring myself to tell him the reason behind it.

While the next three days in the office were extremely inactive they seemed to pass at the speed of light. That was always the way it was when you were dreading something; it would creep up on you very quickly indeed.

So the next thing I knew, I was waking up on Thursday morning feeling extremely anxious. I made my way around my apartment getting ready as slowly as possible. The appointment wasn't until ten o'clock and I didn't particularly feel like wandering around until I had to leave with nothing to do.

I spent about fifteen minutes merely standing under the warm shower water and made absolute sure that everyone of my teeth were sparkling clean before heading out to the kitchen. Edward had told me that I should probably drink a bit of water before the appointment. I hated to think what that meant.

I sat down on the couch and switched on the TV with a tall glass of water in my hand and started sipping at it; waiting. I had finished another two before a knock echoed through the room.

I hurried over to the door and opened it to reveal Edward. My mind momentarily went fuzzy as I took in his tousled hair and bright green eyes.

"Hi," I said in a breathless voice.

"Hello Bella. Have a good sleep?"

"Umm... it was alright." He chuckled, and then eyed the glass of water in my hand.

"Drinking much?"

"This is my third glass." He nodded in approval then stood aside to let me out of the apartment. I put the glass down quickly and grabbed my bag on the way out.

Unfortunately Tanya was in the car when we got outside, not that I had expected anything different, but the sight of her made me uncomfortable again. I climbed into the backseat and muttered a hello which she responded to cheerfully enough, thought she didn't bother to turn around and look at me.

The car ride to the hospital was uncomfortable; for me at least. Edward and Tanya chatted away happily but I was too nervous to join in. I was starting to feel slightly sick.

We arrived at the hospital all too soon. Edward and Tanya jumped out of the car quickly but I took my time, trying hard not to get too panicky. Edward led the way through the many corridors and past many doors. I spent a lot of time in the hospital but I still couldn't get over the smell that it had. The total cleanness was almost sickening.

We finally reached a glass door with the letters 'OBGYN' in large print suck on it. I gulped. Edward shot me a dazzling smile as he held the door open for me and Tanya with made me feel weak at the knees and momentarily distracted me from my distress.

The room was an average size with a large reception desk, comfy looking blue chairs and bright green pot plants. There were a few other people in the waiting room. A young couple who were holding hands and a slightly older couple, one of whom had to be at least eight months pregnant. I cringed slightly as my eyes fell upon her and I forced myself to look straight ahead.

Edward led the way once again over to the large desk where a friendly looking blonde woman was sitting, tapping away at a computer. My nerves erupted again when she turned to smile at the three of us.

"How can I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Edward Cullen. We had an appointment with Dr. Keller for ten." The lady nodded then began tapping something into the computer again.

"Ah, yes, with Tanya and Isabella was it?" Edward nodded.

"That particular part of the clinic is just through those doors there," she said pointing to a pair of large glass doors just across the room, "The doctors who deal with Insemination and so forth are dealt with in that waiting room. Just give the lady at the desk your names and she'll get you all set."

"Thank you." Said Edward politely, before gesturing for us to go first. I could have sworn that I saw the receptionist blush.

The next room looked very much the same as the first only slightly smaller, and there was nobody else waiting. Edward headed over to the desk where another blonde was sitting.

"Hello," said the receptionist immediately as we approached.

"Hi, my name is Edward Cullen."

"You have an appointment with Dr. Keller?"

"Yes." She swivelled away from us for a moment before turning back and handing Edward a large pile of forms.

"Dr. Keller will go through these with you when you see her. Just one moment, I'll let her know that you've arrived." She stood up and disappeared through a door.

Edward was browsing through the forms which left me with no option but to stand there awkwardly. Tanya was rummaging through her handbag and not looking at me, so I sat down and got ready to wait.

I had to jump straight back to my feet again however, as a door across from the reception desk opened and a young woman in a white coat came out.

"Come in,"

We all hurried over to the door and entered the room. It was an everyday doctor's room, with a desk, chairs and uncomfortable looking bed in the corner. The posters on the wall were quite different to any that I would usually see however and did nothing to help my nerves.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Keller. I take it that you're Edward, Tanya and Isabella?" She smiled as she said it and reached out to shake all of our hands in turn.

"It's good to meet you." Said Edward, smiling at her, "Yes I'm Edward and this is my wife Tanya and this is Bella." She nodded to us again before gesturing towards three chairs and sitting down at her desk.

"Well, we have quite a bit to do today so we might as well get straight into it. Edward and I have already discussed the entire situation over the phone so basically today we will just be doing some tests on you Bella and getting some general information before we discuss the procedure in question." Edward nodded. It was clear that he was in a very professional mood today. He was staring at her seriously as though he was hanging onto every word she was saying.

Tanya was merely smiling and nodding, while I attempted to keep my mind focused on what was happening.

"So," she continued, "We'll do a few simple measurements first, then we will need to do an ultrasound just to check that everything is ok in there," The butterflies in my stomach kicked into overdrive as she said this, "and then a urine sample and then these forms need to be filled out."

I nodded weakly at her. Edward smiled at me. He knew that I would be absolutely dreading this.

"Alright, Bella, let's get you into a gown shall we?" I stood up nervously as she rummaged in a draw and handed me a green coloured hospital gown. She gestured for me to stand at the foot of the bed before drawing some curtains around me.

I changed quickly, not listening to what Edward was saying to the doctor outside. I pulled back the curtains.

"Alright Bella, just stand here for me." Said Dr. Keller, pulling out a large tape measure.

She continued to talk to Edward as she measured my height and to my embarrassment; around my waist and hips. She jotted all the measurements onto a clip board, then pulled out a set of scales and jotted down my weight.

"That's all perfectly fine, now I'll just get you to jump up on the bed there for me." Feeling nervous again I lay down on the hard bed while she played around with some complicated looking machinery.

"You alright?" asked Edward, coming to stand beside me.

"I'll survive." I said as cheerfully as I could, rolling my eyes. He grinned again and stayed by my side. That cheered me up immensely.

"Ok, I'll just get you to pull the gown up," said Dr. Keller, holding up a towel to cover over my legs. I nervously did so, revealing my still flat stomach as she pulled the machine around to the side of the bed.

"Did you drink any water this morning like I asked Edward to get you to?" she asked as she pulled out a tube of some sort. I nodded.

"This is going to be a bit cold," she warned me; as she squeezed some blue jell onto my stomach. I jumped as it made contact with my skin and Edward laughed. I shoved him in the shoulder as she pulled out some sort of device that was attached to a television screen and began running it over my stomach.

A fuzzy image appeared. To me it looked like a whole lot of nothing, but it must have made sense to the doctor because she began pointing to the screen and saying things like, "No signs of any scarring." I took that to be a good thing.

I was soon distracted by the urge to use the bathroom badly. Unfortunately she was pressing down on my stomach rather hard. That and a full bladder wasn't really a good combination. I gritted my teeth hard in discomfort and began to fidget slightly.

"Is everything ok Bella?" asked Edward in genuine concern, noticing how I had scrunched up my toes in agitation.

"No, I really need to pee." I said desperately, which caused everyone in the room to laugh.

"That's ok, I'm pretty much done here," said Dr. Keller, highlighting a few distorted shapes on the screen before switching the monitor off. She handed me a towel to wipe my stomach with then headed over to her desk.

I hastily started rubbing the goo off, my urge to pee getting stronger and stronger.

"Ok Bella, I'm going to need you to fill this up," she said, placing a small clear container with a yellow lid on her desk, "and take this," she said, placing a box next to the container.

I jumped to my feet quickly and headed over to her desk to grab the objects. I dropped the box in surprise when I saw that it was a home pregnancy test. The doctor seemed to notice my astonishment and said matter-of-factly,

"It's just something that has to be checked when it comes to these procedures. I know that the chances of it actually being positive are very low and that we can just get the results that we need when we test you're urine, but this is much quicker and easier." I gaped at her. Would she really think that I would agree to do this if I was already pregnant or something?

I shook my head slightly as I walked into the small bathroom that was connected to the room. I didn't quite know how I was supposed to do both things in one sitting; how was I supposed to hold it when I needed to pee this bad?

I headed back into the room a moment later and handed her the test and the container. She placed the container on top of the clipboard with all of the other information, then began shaking the test slightly as she said,

"Ok, so we'll just have to fill out these forms then we can begin discussing the procedure and what you will all expect." I sat down next to Edward. I didn't know why I felt slightly nervous about taking the test. I guess it was just because it was the first time that I had ever done it, and I hadn't really expected to have to take one for a long time.

"Negative," she said, holding it up to reveal a little red cross. She threw it into the bin and picked up the stack of papers that the receptionist had given Edward. I let out the breath that I didn't know that I had been holding and scolded myself for being so stupid.

She shuffled the pages around then grabbed a pen and said,

"This is just standard information that needs to be known for a procedure of this nature. All of the tests that I have taken today have given no reason why the procedure cannot go ahead so as of now we will assume that it will." I head Tanya squeak slightly and Edward smiled at me happily.

"Bella, most of these questions will be directed at you. Full name,"

"Isabella Marie Swan," she scribbled it down on her clipboard,

"Age,"

"Twenty One,"

"Date of Birth,"

"September 13th"

"Occupation?"

"A journalist,"

"Relationship with the partnership in question," she said gesturing towards Edward and Tanya.

"Umm... close friends?" I said, more as a question than an answer. She nodded and jotted it down.

"Are you married?"

"No,"

"Are you in a relationship of any sort at the present time?"

"No?"

"Have you been pregnant in the past?"

"Err... no." Some of these questions were slightly ridiculous. If I was married or had kids would I really be doing this?

"Have you had sexual intercourse in the past month?" I blushed scarlet and chanced a glance at Edward out of the corner of my eye. He was smirking slightly.

"Umm... yes." I said; embarrassed at having this brought up again, especially after just admitting that I wasn't even in a relationship with anyone. Dr. Keller didn't seem surprised by this answer at all and merely continued,

"Are you in anyway related to the partnership in question?"

"No,"

"Do you have any health or mental conditions?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Do you have any allergies?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Is there a history of any genetic diseases in your family?"

"I don't think so."

"Alright then, I think that's all that I need to know for now." She said, putting the papers aside and ticking something off on her clipboard. "Now, do any of you understand the process of Artificial Insemination?"

**Alright, I know that was a really stupid way to finish the chapter but I had a mental block so I'm going to just continue it in the next chapter. I havn't updated in a while so I needed to post something :D Anyway, hope you all liked it. Once again please review if you liked it!!! and I'll update quickly if you do. Speak to you all soon!**


	6. No Going Back

**Hello again! Glad so many of you liked the last chapter. I was toying with the idea of making the pregnancy test positive; just to add a twist, but then I decided that it was just too much of a change from the original story line that I had in mind. :] would have been good though I think... anyway, here's the next one. I might add a little of EPOV in the next chapter so let me know if you want me to. ENJOY!!**

**Chapter 6: No Going Back**

It had been exactly eight days since we had first gone to see Dr. Keller and my nerves were on a high. Edward and Tanya had been so keen to go ahead with the procedure that we'd set a date at that appointment, much to my dismay.

Apparently I was to start ovulating exactly nine days from the appointment which was exactly one day from today. I finally managed to pluck up the courage to speak to my boss and he had been very understanding about the situation. He was once again in a very good mood so I had had no trouble with getting him to understand what was going on. The whole conversation had only lasted about ten minutes for which I was grateful.

Renee was still fretting about me and nearly had a seizure when I told her the date of the appointment. I was surprised that she didn't book plane tickets while I was still on the phone to her, but I think Phil was trying to make her see sense and she had, very reluctantly, decided that she was going to come down in a couple of months instead of a couple of days.

Alice had been over every afternoon, helping me prepare for the situation without freaking out entirely. Edward and Tanya had done most of the talking when we had told Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper, but I still had to put up with their continued questioning and phone calls. They all knew, just like Renee, Charlie, Edward and Alice, that this was way out of my comfort zone. Out of my comfort zone wasn't a good enough description. If Earth was my comfort zone, then this was on Pluto.

I had spent the last hour since I had gotten home from work, going from room to room; completely unsure what to do with myself. I was just looking through the kitchen cupboard for some food, though I wasn't remotely hungry, when someone knocked on the door.

I jumped slightly at the loud noise, before hurrying over to answer it.

Alice stood in the doorway, with a huge grin on her face. She was holding two plastic bags full of what looked like Chinese food in one hand and a stack of DVD's in the other. I still didn't understand how such a tiny person could carry so much.

"Alice what-" I started, but she had already steamed on past me into the kitchen. I hurried after her, but she had started pulling the food out of the bags and was placing them on the kitchen bench. I opened my mouth to speak again but she spun around to face me and said loudly,

"Bella, you look like you're attached to a live wire. Chill ok! We're are sitting down and watching movies. I don't care what you say but you need to calm down. Stress is not good for you!" And with that she turned back to the food, grabbed two containers and headed into the living room.

I gaped after her, but grabbed the remaining containers and followed her. She already had the television set up, with the menu screen for '50 First Dates' showing.

"Alice, what about Jasper?" I asked, sitting myself down next to her. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get out of this and quite frankly; I didn't want to.

"He'll survive one night on his own," she said, rolling her eyes at me. "I'm sure he won't go bonkers just because he has both sides of the bed to himself." I laughed loudly at her use of the word _bonkers_. My cheeks worked hard, as though I had forgotten how to do it.

Alice pressed the play button and handed me a bowl, filled to the brim with Chinese. I had to admit it looked good. She shuffled closer to me on the couch and began shovelling food into her mouth, while staring firmly at the television screen. I rolled my eyes and followed her lead. When Alice wanted to do something you didn't argue with her.

We spent the rest of the night laughing loudly at funny comedies and attacking each other with prawns from the fried rice, but the next thing I knew I was waking up on the couch with Alice's hand resting on the side of my face and her legs over my stomach.

I blinked and looked around, trying to figure out why I had woken up. I gazed groggily over the mess of Chinese containers and rice that littered the coffee table. The TV was switched off, though I didn't remember doing it. My eyes fell onto the couch opposite Alice and I and I nearly had a heart attack when I realised that we weren't alone in the apartment. I opened my mouth to yell, but luckily realized who it was;

Edward was lazing on the sofa, grinning widely at my sleepy state.

"Morning, looks like you two had a rough night?" he said in a sarcastic voice; still grinning.

"How did you... when did you?" I said, still slightly disorientated from just waking up. I didn't need to form a comprehensible question however as Edward held up the spare key that I hid in the pot plant outside the door.

"You really need to find a better place for this. When you didn't answer the door I started searching for the spare key and bingo; right in the most predictable spot." He laughed as I gazed at him with my mouth slightly open.

"How... how long have you been in here?"

"About fifteen minutes. The TV was still going so I turned it off, but I thought that you'd better survey the rest of the disaster area for yourselves." I was awake enough to realise that I was being made fun of so I poked my tongue out at him before gazing around at the messy living room.

"Were you guys drinking or anything?" asked Edward, in an incredulous voice, as he followed my gaze.

"Didn't have a drop," I said truthfully. My voice sounded as stunned as his did.

"Wow. I'd hate to think what would happen to the apartment if you had." He said, laughing.

I laughed along with him. The motion made Alice begin to stir. She opened her eyes and spotted Edward grinning at her from the opposite side of the room.

"AAAHHHHH!!" she shrieked, in surprise; toppling off of the couch and pulling me down with her.

I managed to stop myself from hitting the coffee table for the umpteenth time by grabbing it with my hand and pushing it along the ground and out of harm's way. Alice wasn't so lucky.

I looked up to see her, coughing and spluttering with sweet and sour sauce all over her face.

Edward was laughing loudly behind her, clutching his sides. She glared up at him which only made him laugh harder. I took one look at her angry, splattered face and couldn't stop myself. I started laughing too.

Alice huffed loudly before storming gracefully off to the bathroom; something that I could never pull off. Edward and I remained laughing for a good few minutes until I had to stop for breath.

"Ok," I said, trying to control myself, "I'm awake now."

"I think we should probably clean this mess up." Said Edward. I groaned, but he just laughed, "Come on, I'll help." He grabbed my hand and hoisted me up to my feet. He started gathering all of the plates and plastic containers together while I went and got a cloth and soapy water ready.

Alice came into the room, just as I was starting to wipe up the fried rice, de-sauced and looking slightly more cheerful.

"What are you doing here Edward?!" she asked, in an exhausted voice, as though she had had a very stressful day.

Edward chuckled and replied, "I was coming over to make sure that Bella was going to be ready on time. When she didn't answer, I thought that I'd better wake her up and I knew that there was a spare key around somewhere. I came in and found you guys asleep. I thought that world war three had broken out in your lounge room Bella."

"Oh, haha." I said, rolling my eyes.

"What time do you guys have to leave?" she asked, looking at the clock on the wall.

"In about half an hour." Said Edward, nonchalantly. My stomach did a back flip as I looked up at the clock and saw that we would be at the hospital in under an hour.

Alice seemed to notice my expression and gave me a reassuring smile, before turning to the cushions that were scattered around the room.

We had the room almost entirely back to normal about 12 minutes later and Edward pushed me down the hallway to my bedroom, saying that he would finish it up just as long as I got ready quickly.

I wasn't too sure what to wear to a hospital, where I would shortly be stripping down into a gown anyway so I pulled out a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. Alice gave me a disapproving look as I walked out of my bedroom and into the bathroom. She didn't like the fact that I had no fashion sense.

I was done in the bathroom with five minutes to spare so I quickly grabbed a pop-tart and shoved it in the toaster before going and seeing how the cleanup was getting along. Alice was ready and standing in the middle of the room. I didn't understand how she could manage to look like a supermodel, when she only had 10 minutes or so to get ready.

Edward was waiting on the couch. He spread his arms wide to show off the clean living room when I entered. I nodded appreciatively,

"Good job."

"You just about ready?" he asked

"Just got to eat and then I'm right." I hurried back into the kitchen before he could take in my frantic expression. I heard someone follow me and I looked round to see Alice giving me a knowing look.

"Relax Bella. You've made the right decision; right?"

I nodded.

"So don't worry. I'm going to come down to the hospital with you guys ok? Moral support; Edward agrees." I opened my mouth to argue, but she just held up one finger and motioned for me to hurry up and eat.

I grabbed my coat and Edward held the door open for the two of us before locking it with the spare key and burying it back in the pot plant.

We headed out to the front of the apartment block. Edward looked at his watch and then up and down the street. I had no idea what he was looking for until Tanya drove around the corner in Edward's Volvo and parked right in front of us.

My heart sank at the sight of her. I knew that she would definitely be coming but that didn't stop me from wishing. I sighed as I climbed into the back seat with Alice, while Edward kissed Tanya on the cheek as he jumped into the front.

The other three chattered away happily as we drove. I wasn't in the mood to join in. My breathing was coming much faster and deeper than usual as the hospital came into sight and the enormity of what I was about to do fully hit me. _Had_ I made the right decision?

Edward led the way into the hospital, holding Tanya's hand, while Alice walked behind them with me. She finally noticed my panicked state and grabbed hold of my hand.

"Bella, calm down," she said, looking me straight in the eye, "you know that you've made the right choice; you've thought about nothing else for the past three weeks." I nodded at her, still not trusting myself to speak. She gave me a reassuring smile and steered me along after Edward and Tanya.

Edward led us to a different part of the hospital this time. Dr. Keller's office was nowhere in sight as we walked into another waiting room, with yet another reception desk. Edward walked up to the counter and started conversing with the young man behind it as Alice sat me down in one of the blue chairs. Tanya sat down opposite us and began flipping through one of the out of date magazines from a nearby coffee table.

Edward turned away from the counter and headed towards us. To my surprise he sat down on my other side as he said,

"We've just got to wait for five minutes or so. Dr. Keller is getting some things sorted out." I nodded and hastily grabbed one of the magazines in an attempt to hide my frenzied expression. I wasn't really reading it and I knew that I was turning the pages much too fast to be convincing.

"Bella," said Edward softly. I reluctantly looked up to meet his bright green eyes. The sight never failed to knock the breath out of me.

"Y-Yes?" I stuttered.

"Are you sure that you're ok? With all of this?" his voice held so much concern and meaning that I faltered for a moment before answering.

"Y-yeah. I am. Just a little nervous, that's all." He had continuously asked me the same question every time he spoke to me for the past nine days and every time he did, my answer had been the same.

He shot me my favourite crooked smile, causing my heart to stutter and my breathing to hitch. It was extremely inappropriate of me to be feeling like this about him while his wife was sitting just two metres away, but I couldn't help it.

"Edward and Isabella?" came a voice from across the room. My head snapped up and I spotted Dr. Keller waiting for us. The fear that had momentarily disappeared came rushing back as we all stood up, including Alice, and followed her into a long hallway.

"How is everyone this morning?" she asked cheerfully as we walked along the hall. I didn't answer as Edward replied, just as cheerily.

"We seem to have one extra?" she said, obviously referring to Alice.

"Oh, yes, this is my sister Alice." Said Edward.

"Nice to meet you," she called over her should as she continued to lead us down the hall.

She eventually walked into a large room with a hospital bed in one corner and two doors set into the opposite wall. "Well, let's get straight into it then. Bella, you're going to have to get changed. The clothes that you'll need are all in that room." She said gesturing to one of the doors. "And Edward, you will have to go into this room and get me a deposit." she handed him a small cup, similar to the one that I had had to pee in the last time we'd been here. To my embarrassment, I felt my cheeks turn slightly pink as Edward took the cup and headed towards the door.

I hurried towards the other one as quickly as I could, hoping that no one had seen. The green gown was exactly as I had expected, as well as the matching synthetic socks. I changed quickly and left my belongings in one of the small cubby holes with my name printed on it.

A young woman, who I assumed to be a nurse, had entered the room while I was changing and was setting up a tray of complicated looking tools. Edward still wasn't back, but I tried to focus on something other than what I knew he was doing in the next room as I walked up to Alice, Tanya and Dr. Keller.

"Alright Bella, the process will be a little uncomfortable for you, but not painful and there is very rarely any bleeding involved." Well at least that was one less thing for me to worry about. "We'll need to clean the sperm before it is inserted so you are all quite welcome to sit down and make yourselves comfortable." She gestured towards the chairs near a large desk and the three of us went and sat down.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as Dr. Keller strode away to help the nurse. I clasped my hands together in my lap and bit my lip hard. Tanya was fiddling around in her hand bag and pulled out a compact. I avoided looking at her, and instead gazed around at Alice, only to find her already looking at me with a stern sort of look on her face.

"_What?"_ I mouthed at her. She rolled her eyes at me and grabbed my hand, holding it firmly. It made me feel a little better. I couldn't fool Alice, she saw right through me.

A moment later Edward emerged from the room, holding the little cup. He quickly handed it to the nurse, who hurried it over to Dr. Keller. She began fiddling around on the other side of the room while Edward wandered over to us and sat down next to Tanya.

He smiled at me and ran his hand through his tousled hair.

The next fifteen minutes were some of the longest of my life. It took everything I had in me not to scream and run from the room, but every time I looked at Edward, I remembered why I was doing it and managed to convince myself that it was _definitely_ the right thing. That knowledge wasn't enough to stop my stomach from doing back flips.

"Alright Bella. Everything is all set, so if I could just ask you to jump up on the table for me and for everyone else to leave the room." I shot a panicked glance at Alice who firmly pushed me in the direction of the table. It wasn't that she was being mean or anything. She just knew that I would regret it if she let me leave now.

I hopped onto the table, ungracefully, and watched as Tanya walked out of the room, followed by Alice who smiled kindly at me before departing. Edward walked over to me quickly and grabbed my hand. I momentarily forgot what was happening as I looked up into his face.

"Bella, are you sure?" I nodded at him for the last time and he leant in to kiss me lightly on the forehead.

"Thank you," he breathed, before striding out the door and closing it behind him.

I stared after him in a sort of daze. I only managed to rip my eyes away from the closed door when Dr. Keller spoke.

"Ok, Bella. I'm going to have to ask you to spread your legs for me." I did so, turning a deep shade of scarlet. My heart was hammering at what must have been a hundred miles an hour. I felt sick.

**Here you go guys. Sorry it took so long and that its shorter that most of my recent updates but I wanted to get it out in the open. Hope you enjoyed. If you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. PLEASE REVIEW!! **


	7. God Help Me

**Oh dear, sorry guys... I feel awful! But I do sort of have an excuse... I actually forget how much I've posted to you if you know what I'm saying. NO? Ok let me explain. Well I lay there in bed at night and stuff and go over whats going to happen in my head. I do it so often that sometimes I forget how much you guys actually know and how much I know. Probably not a very good excuse but I've got a whole couple of chapters mapped out in my head and I just forget that you guys don't have any idea what they are... anyway! Here's a list of all my excuses (I know that they really won't do anything for you but it makes me feel better :P)**

**I'm on block exams**

**I went away for five days**

**My internet was down for a week**

**I had 5 assignments over the past two months**

**I went away on the last holidays**

**My laptop died and had to get repaired**

**Oh... and I kinda forgot about it during all that stuff :]**

**Good chapter ahead. Bella will probs find out if the procedure was successful; ) and we'll have a bit of Edwards POV as well to see how he finds Bella's decision. Hope you enjoy!!! OH and to all of those reviewers who want to know if this is a Bella/Edward story, it certainly is!! Ugh how could anyone think that I'd actually leave Edward and Tanya together, you'll just have to wait and see how it unfolds... but for now, let's see how poor Bella's going...**

**Chapter 7: God Help me...**

About twenty minutes later Dr. Keller and the nurse left me on the table so that they could go and fill in some paper work. I had to lie still for about thirty minutes, just to make sure everything went alright. I felt strange, almost numb. I didn't know what to think. I was glad that I was alone. If Edward or Alice were here, I didn't know if I would be able to hold it together completely or just pass out right there and then.

I lay completely still. My eyes felt glued wide open as I starred unblinkingly at the plain white ceiling directly above me. It took me a moment to realise why I could feel my heart rate increasing. I wasn't breathing. The moment I realised this I opened my mouth and took in a wild gasp of air.

I couldn't help it after that. One solitary tear ran out of my eye and down the side of my cheek. It wasn't that I was upset due to regret or sadness; if anything I felt even more certain that I'd done the right thing, but the extent of what I was doing had me feeling extremely confused.

I took in another deep steadying breath and sat myself up on my elbows slightly. The doctor had been right; the procedure hadn't hurt much at all, though I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone in the near future. It had been uncomfortable to say the least.

I sighed and rolled me head around, loosening the muscles in my neck. I could hear muttering voices just outside the door and sighed. Edward would be itching to check up on me. The thought did cheer me up a little. I closed my eyes and tried very, very hard not to think about anything; I'd have enough to think about later on without starting my worrying now.

***

I jerked awake to the sound of the door opening. I stared wildly around the room feeling disorientated. Wow. How'd I manage to fall asleep? Dr Keller walked over to me, smiling.

"How are you feeling Bella?"

"I'm fine," I lied. In truth the panic was coming back to me as I started to remember where I was and why I was there...

"Well you can sit up now," I did so quickly and watched as she headed across the room and grabbed a folder of paper. "Ok. I want you to take it easy for the rest of the day ok? No vigorous exercise or anything like that." She smiled as though she found it funny that anyone would ever dream of trying that.

"I've included a pregnancy test in here," she said, shaking the folder that she was holding, "but if you take it and it comes back negative I don't want you or anyone else to be disappointed, ok? It does take time and just because you're not pregnant when you take the test doesn't mean that you're not going to be. Maybe take it tomorrow, rather than tonight, to avoid disappointment." I nodded at her and thought bitterly that I definitely wouldn't be disappointed. I bit my tongue and mentally scolded myself. Edward would probably just throw another few thousand dollars into it and say, _"Oh well, let's just try again!"_

Stupid rich people.

"I'm sure you've got a few people anxious to talk to you so I think that's everything you need to know for now. Edward knows to call me when you get the results back so why don't you go and get changed and I'll see you later." She smiled kindly at me again before leaving the room with the nurse.

I waited until they closed the door to get shakily to my feet. I hurried, as quickly as my jelly legs would allow, into the room where I'd left the jeans and t-shirt that Alice had been so disappointed in. I changed quickly and then mentally prepared myself to go and face the people waiting for me out in the hall. I took a deep steadying breath, not quite sure why I was so anxious, and strode towards the door.

I opened it slowly and poked my head out. A weak groan escaped my lips when I took in the crowd of people waiting outside. Not only were Edward, Tanya and Alice there, but in the short time that I had been inside the room they had been joined by Jasper, Emmett _and_ Rosalie who, last I'd heard, had been a good hour away at university!

I slipped out into the hallway without any of them noticing me and very quietly closed the door behind me. Unfortunately the hinges on the door were in serious need of some oil and the loud creaking threw all of the attention back on to me. _Oh joy!_

"Bella!" squealed Alice, back to her usual hyper self, as she hurried over to me. The others all followed suit and crowded around.

"Where did you guys come from?" I asked, glancing around at the additions to the group and not bothering to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Emmett let out a bark of laughter.

"Why, you know I'd never miss a chance to give you _loads_ of attention Bells! Cause we all know how much you love that!" I rolled my eyes at his continuing need to embarrass or annoy me in some way.

"They thought that they'd come and give you some moral support," joked Edward, "plus we're all going back to our place," he gestured between himself and Tanya as he spoke, "so why miss the chance for us all to get together?"

"Yay!" I said, my voice flooded with sarcasm as I raised my hands in mock celebration. My sudden confidence surprised myself considering that just a few seconds ago I'd felt close to breaking point.

"Well," said Rosalie impatiently, "what are we all doing standing around in a hospital corridor? Let's get going." Everyone began making their way down the hall, back the way we'd come earlier this morning.

I walked a little way behind the group and Alice dropped back to walk beside me.

"How you going?" she asked. Nothing got past Alice.

"Alright," I said truthfully. I was fine, for the moment. The fact that I really wouldn't have to worry too much until tomorrow when I took the test was comforting. I was stretching it a bit to find something as small as that 'comforting'. I was just trying to distract myself from the fact that at any moment, any insignificant little second, I could be pregnant. _That_ fact terrified me. It was stupid really; I mean it wasn't as if there had never been a chance in the past where I could have gotten pregnant. I guess it was just that I _knew_ that it was coming and it gave be time to stress over it.

We were just walking towards the car park when Edward suddenly spoke.

"I'm going to stop by at the supermarket and grab some food for us. Bella, Tanya and I haven't had any lunch yet." He stopped and turned to Tanya, "Sweetie, why don't you go with Alice or Jasper and you can let them into the house?" Tanya nodded and headed off with Alice. I was pleased to see that she didn't look overly excited with the seating arrangements. I was just making a move to follow them when Edward grabbed my arm and began pulling me towards his car.

"Why don't you come with me Bella?" he said, not really giving me any choice. I didn't mind in the slightest. Any chance to be alone with him was alright with me.

He opened my door for me as usual then headed round and jumped into the driver's side. I watched as Alice's Porche, Jasper's Mercedes and Emmett's Jeep all rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

"Bella?" I spun my head around at the sound of my name.

Edward was leaning slightly towards me, a mixture of gratitude and concern in his eyes. My heart began to race as I realised how close his face was to mine.

"Edward?" I breathed. His breath was intoxicating. I felt a shudder run down my spine.

"Bella, I... I really just... I want you to know..." He was struggling for words, that much was obvious. I just continued gawking at him like an idiot, completely oblivious to his lack of vocabulary. He took a deep breath.

"Bella... I really hope that you understand how important this is to me. I haven't really had a chance to talk to you about it properly... but I really, _really_, am grateful- no more than that. I just can't tell you how much this means to me and I want you to know that if at any time during this you freak out or get scared, please tell me." I resisted the urge to tell him that it was a bit late for that but smiled all the same.

"It's alright Edward, I know." He shot me my favourite crooked smile and I blushed a deep shade of red. He just laughed and started up the engine.

The car ride was fairly silent. Edward turned on the radio and began singing along to a song that I'd never heard before. I smiled to myself as I watched the street flashing past the window and revelled in the moment. I knew that I probably wouldn't feel this happy for a while so I took the opportunity to make the most of it while I could.

We pulled into a seven eleven a moment later. Edward got out quickly and hurried round to open my door. He smiled at me as I climbed out and I felt my cheeks warm again.

We walked through the store in a companionable silence. I just watched Edward in a kind of trance as he scanned the shelves and grabbed everything we'd need to make hotdogs later on. He kept shooting glances at me out of the corner of his eye and smiling to himself. I was sure that my face had put a new meaning to the colour red by now.

We got back into the car, still in silence and Edward hurriedly started up the engine.

**EPOV**

I started up the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. Bella was staring idly out the window. I smiled happily at the site of her absently biting her lip. She really was incredible. I don't think that she fully understood just how much I relied on her as a friend. If she wasn't I didn't think that I would be the same person that I was today. And now, she was doing something for me that would put me eternally in her dept. I just couldn't stop myself from smiling at her whenever she looked at me; she was making me so happy at the moment. I hoped she understood that.

I pulled up into the drive and parked next to Jasper's car. Bella started as though drawn from a deep reverie. She looked over at me and I smiled.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Umm... I guess?"

I jumped out of the car and quickly opened her door. She shook her head slightly. I had never understood why she found my behaviour odd. When we were younger, she had always asked me why I did that and I had always responded with 'why wouldn't I?' I knew it frustrated her. I smiled at her again.

We walked inside together. I could hear laughter coming from the living room and grabbed Bella's hand so that I could pull her down the hall. I glanced at her face and saw that it had turned pink again. I chuckled at her and opened the door.

Everyone in the room froze and turned to look at us when we entered. I suddenly got the uncanny feeling that they had just been talking about Bella. She didn't seem to notice however and walked straight through the living room and into the kitchen with several of the shopping bags that she'd been too stubborn to let me carry.

I smiled around at everyone to signal them that it was alright to keep talking and walked after Bella. She was looking around the kitchen with a confused expression on her face.

"You alright?" I asked with a smile on my face.

"No!" she cried. Immediately my mind jumped to the worst conclusions; she didn't want to do this, she hated me for asking her to do it. Man I was a terrible person.

"I can't find anything in this god damn kitchen!" She said in an angry voice. I stared at her for a moment, and then doubled over, laughing hard at the frustrated expression on her face. She was beautiful. I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to think those sorts of things about my best friend but I didn't really care. I loved her and I knew that it wasn't in a romantic way so what did it matter?

When my laughter had subsided enough for me to speak I asked, "What –what are you looking for?"

"Well we need to have lunch don't we?" I smiled at her and helped her find the plates and everything else we needed to make up the hotdogs.

We had them ready to eat within fifteen minutes and Bella walked out ahead of me, carrying the laden tray. I smiled at the back of her head as I walked into the living room.

Everyone threw aside the cards that they'd been playing and laughed when Bella nearly tripped over her own feet for the umpteenth time. She placed the tray on the table and sat down on the empty sofa. I sat down next to her and leant in to get a hotdog before Emmett ate them all.

The next couple of hours passed in a blur. Everyone was laughing and chatting and I was happy that no one brought up the recent trip to the hospital. I could tell that Bella wasn't herself and I couldn't blame her. I kept shooting her smiles and reassuring glances every now and then. I really didn't want her to be scared.

It was almost dark out before that topic of conversation was raised. Then was a slight lull in all the talk as Tanya brought out drinks for everyone. She was walking around the circle offering one to everyone and when Bella didn't reach for one Emmett's booming voice suddenly echoed around the room.

"Aww, come on Bella! Don't be a party pooper!" Everyone in the room all turned to look at him with exasperated expressions on their face.

"What?" I rolled my eyes as I pulled the lid off my beer and Emmett looked around at everyone staring at him like he was the stupidest guy on the planet. I was really starting to think that he was.

It took him a moment but he finally said, "Ohhhh right!" Bella rolled her eyes and took a sip from the glass of water clutched in her hand. There was a moment of slightly awkward silence. It wasn't hard to tell what everyone was thinking about. Bella shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

I was just about to start up a new topic of conversation to save her the awkwardness when Tanya spoke,

"Bella?" Bella's head shot up and she looked at her with wide eyes. I didn't quite understand why she looked so shocked but Tanya kept talking, "I was just wondering... well Dr. Keller gave you a pregnancy test didn't she?" she left the sentence hanging but she didn't need to express herself any more for everyone to know what she was getting at.

I quickly spoke as apprehension clouded Bella's face, "Love, we probably won't be able to get an accurate result tonight." Tanya's bottom lip stuck out in a pout.

"I was just thinking there was no harm in trying; if it's negative it's negative. We can quite easily go and buy another one." I glanced over at Bella who was sitting completely still, not looking at anyone.

"W- well..." I stuttered. I guess she did have a point. What _was_ the harm in trying? It was just the fact that Bella looked so tense. I glanced at her again but if I was telling the truth, I was anxious to get the results back too.

"I guess we could try, if Bella didn't mind of course." I saw Alice shoot me a dangerous look from across the room but she didn't say anything. I looked down at Bella who seemed to shrink under everyone's gaze.

"Umm... s- sure. I could do that." Her voice was shaking but her face looked indifferent. I could see right through the lie though and I knew that Alice could as well. She was looking at Bella, her face full of concern.

Bella got to her feet and pulled the huge file out of her backpack. She reached inside it and pulled out a white box before handing the folder over to me. Her hands were shaking. I tried to ignore the anxiety emanating from her in waves.

She didn't look at anyone as she headed quickly out of the room. I glanced briefly at Alice who was looking like she wanted to follow but Jasper put a hand on her leg and held her in place. Tanya gave an excited kind of squeak and bounded over to me.

I smiled happily at her, my concern for Bella zooming to the back of my mind as I realised that I might actually find out that I was going to be a father in a few short moments. I wrapped my hand around her Tanya's waist and smiled at everyone.

Emmett was grinning after Bella, completely oblivious to her discomfort.

"This is exciting," said Rosalie, who was smiling at me; looking almost as excited as I felt. As I looked around, everyone was excited, everyone but Alice who looked worried. She kept glancing over her shoulder at the place where Bella had vanished.

"Bella seemed alright after coming out of that hospital room this arvo," commented Jasper. He didn't seem to have noticed that she had been the opposite of alright when she left the room. Maybe I had just imagined it? I smiled to myself and squeezed Tanya happily. She giggled and grabbed my free hand.

Everyone was silent. There was an air of tension in the room but not in a bad way. It was excitement. After about two minutes of waiting Emmett started up the conversation again by bagging out Jasper's car. This was a sensitive topic for all three of us guys as we all felt very passionately about our cars. I sat down with Tanya.

"Mercedes are so over rated Jazz. Seriously! Get a man's car!" Japer leant forward aggressively and retorted.

"Well maybe I should say the same to you Emmett. Jeep! Now _that's_ over rated. They can barely reach 120." Emmett snorted.

"Sorry Emmett I'll have to agree with Jazz on that one." I said, grinning broadly. Emmett glared at me.

"Jeep rocks!" he said loudly.

"Sure sure," Jasper laughed, waving his hand lazily in the air.

"Personally I prefer Volvo's" I said, smirking, already knowing the amount of talk that this would cause.

"Oh no! Don't even get me started on _Volvo's_" said Emmett, speaking the name Volvo like it was a dirty word.

"Oh shut up you guys! Why don't you all get Porches and just be done with it!" Alice rolled her eyes but she was smiling. Emmett immediately turned on her and continued ranting.

It got to the point that everyone was so loud that I could barely hear my own thoughts. Emmett's booming voice was echoing around the huge room.

It was about ten minutes later that I heard a small whisper from behind me, "It's positive."

Every head in the room whipped around in unison.

Bella was standing in the doorway with a smile on her face, holding up a pregnancy test. Her eyes were terrified.

**YAY! Oh and look; there's another chapter! My present to u guys for not updating! Alright; I just wanted to comment on a couple of things from this chapter. One; Edward does care about Bella very much. I know that in a couple of places here i've made it look like he doesn't cause he does. He's just very caught up in his marriage and the idea of children and their relationship isn't exactly what it used to be. Two; everyone knows how bella feels about doing this. They know her too well for that, but alice and Edward know her best and thats why they can tell when she's feeling anxious etc etc. But Edward isn't noticing it as much at the moment, mainly because he doesn't want to notice it if u know what I mean... alright now listen everyone... I still want u to review this chapter ok!! See that little button down there? All u need to do is press it and type a couple of words. NO DONT U DARE GO TO THE NEXY PAGE YET!! OR I'LL NEVER POST TWO CHAPTERS AGAIN!! Thanks ;] oh and I want to know what u guys think of Edwards POV too...**


	8. What was I Thinking Again?

**Here we go... enjoy!!**

**Chapter 8; What was I thinking Again?**

**EPOV**

There was complete silence for about half a second, and then everyone leapt to their feet.

"Oh my god!" screamed Rosalie. I vaguely heard Emmett swearing and Jasper whooping. Tanya was shrieking but I didn't care. I leapt over the back of the couch and pulled Bella into a hug. I could feel her arms around me which were almost instantly joined by five others all fighting to hug some part of us.

The screaming and yelling lasted for a good five minutes. Everyone was hugging everyone and Emmett starting singing. I felt like I was on a high. There seemed to be a buzz in the air and I couldn't stop laughing. I never let go of Bella's hand even as I hugged every person in the room at least four times. Tanya was gripping my other arm and yelling hysterically in my ear. In those five minutes, my life was perfect.

Eventually the euphoria calmed enough for everyone to sit. The babble of talk continued for another half an hour, with everyone talking about everything from baby shopping to telling Esme. I couldn't help but notice that Bella didn't say a word, but I was far too happy for it to play on my mind for long.

Once almost every beer in the house had been drunk and every glass had been used, we decided that it was probably time to call a cab and everyone piled out onto the driveway to wait for it. Bella's truck was in the driveway (Emmett had driven it round for her after we'd picked her up this morning) and the taxi pulled up next to it.

There was yet more frantic hugging and Alice, Rosalie and I organised that we would be over at Bella's house at ten in the morning to take her out for brunch. I had the sneaking suspicion that Alice was worrying sick about her even through all the alcohol, but Bella looked happy enough.

We waved goodbye as the taxi swung around the corner and Tanya and I hugged Bella tightly.

"I'll be there in a moment hun," I said to Tanya, who skipped inside, too happy to care.

I spun round and pulled Bella into yet another hug.

"Thank you," I whispered in her ear. I couldn't think of anything else that would express how I felt so I kept it simple.

"Any time," she said sarcastically and I laughed. I kissed her on the forehead and stepped back, allowing her to climb into her truck.

I waved one last time, then headed inside to find Tanya. She was waiting for me in the living room.

"Hi mummy," I whispered as I wrapped my arms around her. She giggled and began working on the buttons of my shirt. I kissed her hard and ran my hands up and down her sides. I was just so happy to know that I was going to be a dad, that I wanted to touch her everywhere I could.

I slid her shirt up over her head as we fell backwards onto the couch and she laughed loudly as we rolled onto the floor. I'd never felt so good in my life.

**BPOV**

I sighed as I watched Edward walk back into the house, a new spring in his step. He looked like he was about to take off to the moon. I shook my head slightly and forced myself to reach for my keys. I wouldn't let myself get upset until I got home but I didn't quite feel it coming on yet. Part of that was due to Edward and the way that he was looking at me. It felt different and I knew that I shouldn't be thinking about it, especially at a time like this but I couldn't help it. It was the only decent thing I had to cling onto at the moment.

I looked over at the seat and saw that my bag wasn't there. I glanced into the back and at my feet and it wasn't there either. _I must have left it in the living room_ I thought as I dragged myself back out of the truck and towards the front door. I quickly stuck my hands in my pockets and felt the keys. I stopped, debating whether or not I should just go, but I was already at the door so I knocked lightly. No one answered so I tried the handle and it turned.

I walked quickly down the hall and towards the living room. I could hear people muttering inside and I opened the door just enough to poke my head in and ask for my bag. I glanced around the room and for a moment it looked empty though I'd definitely heard people in here a moment ago. Then I glanced at the floor and froze. Edward and Tanya were on the ground. I stayed just long enough to see that they were unclothed, before closing the door as fast as I could without making a noise. I could feel the panic beginning to rise.

How could I be so stupid?! I'd let my imagination run away with me, given myself just that little bit of hope that he might _just_ feel for me in some way, even the tiniest little bit; all because he'd been paying me more attention than usual.

It was just like me to do something like this. The first time that I give myself any hope that Edward might feel the same way about me, I walk in on him and his wife having sex on their living room floor. _Of course_ he wasn't going to all of a sudden blossom feelings for me. He'd just found out that he and his wife were in fact having a baby. Even though I may be me having it for them, they were still getting a child.

I was backing quickly out of the door now. I'd just have to go and get my bag tomorrow or something; there was no way on Earth that I was walking back into that house tonight. I ran down the drive and got into my truck as quickly as I could without tripping myself up.

It was only when I slammed the door closed that I realised that I had tears pouring down my face. I leant my forehead against the steering wheel and tried to calm myself down. I had no hope of doing that. I could feel my shoulders shaking as I sobbed uncontrollably my breathing becoming more and more ragged by the second.

I knew in the back of my mind that this wasn't just because of what I'd just walked in on. I'd been feeling odd ever since I'd taken the test and even worse when I saw that it was positive. Of course I was going to be upset at first; I always knew that I would be. I knew that I'd probably have one night where I'd lose all control and cry hysterically but I also knew that I would get over it, once the initial shock wore off. But, walking in on Edward and Tanya had been the end to my last thread of self control.

I would probably act like this after walking in on them whether I was having their baby or not, but the fact that I _was_ made everything that whole lot worse. I took in a deep shuddering breath and turned the key in the ignition.

I drove home as quickly as I could with blurred vision and stumbled back up to my apartment, still with tears streaming down my face. I struggled to get the key into the hole and almost fell through the door when it swung open. I slammed it behind me and dropped my keys on the kitchen bench before collapsing onto the couch and closing my eyes.

I couldn't deal with this pain right now. I'd promised Renee that I would call her after the procedure. It was now like three hours after it and she was bound to be freaking out. I ran my fingers repetitively through my hair as I attempted to control my sobs, but the pain was too intense.

Usually when something like this happened I would turn to some form of distraction; preferably with alcohol involved- much like I'd done with Tom a couple of weeks ago, but that was out of the question now and I hated it. I'd never had to deal with the full on grief before, having always gotten myself wasted or stoned or high or whatever other form of intoxication that there was.

I shook my head hard and sat up trying to rid the image of Tanya and Edward rolling around on the floor out from my head. I clenched my teeth together to stop the sobbing but there was nothing that I could do about the tears that continued to stream down my face. I walked slowly over to the kitchen sink and splashed my face with water then grabbed a t-towel and wiped it away.

I was just about to take some aspirin or something to make me sleepy when someone knocked loudly on the door. I threw the t-towel into the corner of the kitchen as quickly as I could and looked around the room in panic. Who could possibly be here at this time of night? Worse case scenarios were flashing through my head; Alice? Edward? Tanya? Charlie? Renee?

I pulled myself together enough to realise that I had to answer the door. I'd just have to hope that I didn't look too much like I'd just been crying my eyes out. I grabbed the handle and slowly pulled the door open.

"Hi Bella,"

I gaped at him in shock. It was Mike. Of all the times that he could have chosen to try and ask me around to his apartment it had to be the time that I was probably having the worst break down of my life.

"M-Mike, hi?" He was smiling down at me. I glanced at his hands and saw that he was holding a six pack of beer. Why now? Why?!

"Umm... look... I was wondering if you'd like to come over to my place and have a drink or something?" He sounded really nervous and he was looking slightly over my head rather than directly at my face. Great, now I had to try and let him down nicely.

"Mike, now is really..." I stopped. I could feel my reckless, stupid side beginning to kick in; a side effect that often occurred after having my heart stabbed at again by an unknowing Edward. I back tracked quickly, "Now is really great! But why don't we just stay here?"

Mike's eyes widened in shock and a huge smile was suddenly plastered across his face. "Sure!" he said, a little too enthusiastically for my liking. I stepped aside and allowed him to pass through into my apartment. He looked around at everything with wide eyes as he passed.

"Umm... why don't we just go into the living room?" I said after a moment of awkward silence. He followed me obediently. I had the feeling that he would have gone and sat down in a sewer if I'd asked him to.

I sat down on the couch and he took the space next to me. There was another moment of silence before he quickly grabbed two beers and placed the rest on the coffee table. He offered one to me in silence and I took it. I opened it easily but didn't raise it to my mouth. I was sure that Mike would be far too distracted by being in my apartment to pick up on a little thing like me not drinking.

I glanced over at him and found his eyes already on me. He took a huge chug of beer to cover up his ogling.

"Ha... I actually wasn't expecting you to say yes to the drink." Said Mike, obviously feeling a little more confident with some alcohol in his system. I feigned shock.

"Really!? Why would you think that?" I widened my eyes a little for effect.

"Well I kinda got the impression that you didn't like me much." He looked amused at the idea now.

"I wonder where you got that idea from," I said, allowing a little sarcasm into my voice; Mike didn't seem to notice. There was another moment of silence.

"So what do you do exactly? For a living I mean." I asked. He proceeded to tell me about his job which seemed exceedingly dull and boring. I pretended to listen but I could feel the pain and grief beginning to ebb back now that the initial shock of Mike's appearance had worn off. I felt my eyes begin to burn as tears threatened to spill back down my face. I couldn't stand this, I _needed_ the pain to stop.

I put my untouched drink quickly onto the coffee table and grabbed Mikes second out of his hand. He stopped mid sentence but before he could ask what I was doing I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him full on the lips. I felt him freeze in shock underneath me but after a moment he responded with far more enthusiasm than me, just like I'd known he would.

I stood up and pulled him with me, not letting our lips lose contact. I twisted my hands in his hair and pushed him up against the closest wall, slamming his back into it. He groaned and kissed me harder. I hastily grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up over his head. He obliged and allowed his pants to fall freely down to his ankles.

He let go of me quickly and pulled a small silver packet out of the pocket of his scrunched up jeans. Wow... he moves fast.

I grabbed him hands- still kissing him hard- and pulled him down the hall, towards my bedroom.

***

The sunlight from my window was falling straight across my face without the curtains closed. I groaned and tried to remember why the hell I hadn't closed them last night. I brought my hand up to shield my eyes but it connected with something else on the other side of my bed.

"Crap," I moaned. The memories of last night came flooding back to me and a torrent of swear words and profanities erupted inside my head. I opened my eyes quickly and stared at Mike who was lying on his back with his mouth wide open, evidently unclothed.

I swung my legs out over the side of the bed as fast as I could and began rummaging around my room in a frenzy, trying to find some clothes. I found some underwear but couldn't find any sign of my other clothes. I sighed and settled on an old, button up, flannelette shirt that was far too big for me but would cover up the top half of my body suitably until I got my hands on some proper clothes.

Somewhere during my frantic rummaging Mike woke up I heard him groan behind me and turned round apprehensively. This was just great. He lived across the hall from me. Talk about embarrassing.

Mike sat up slowly and rubbed his head. I'd forgotten how much beer he'd had last night; for all I knew he might have been hammered before he came round- I wasn't really up for noticing too much at that point.

I grabbed his shirt and pants from just outside the door before he realised that I was up and threw them at him.

"Get dressed, NOW!" I glanced frantically at the clock on the wall and felt another wave of panic wash over me. Alice, Rosalie and Edward were due over here in fifteen minutes! I swung back round to face Mike and saw him staring at me with a confused expression on his face.

"Just do it!!" I yelled, before hurrying out of the room and rushing back out into the living room. I look around at the mess and began picking up my clothes that were scattered in a line from the couch down the hall.

Mike emerged a few seconds later with a serious case of bed hair and his shirt on inside out.

"Bella wha-" I cut him off before he could start with the twenty questions.

"Look Mike, I'm sorry alright but you're going to have to leave." I stopped in the act of heading to the washing basket and ran my fingers through my hair.

"But don't you want to have breakfast or something? I could buy you breakfast?" he sounded really confused now. Man! How could I be so stupid? What had I been thinking? This poor guy had been trying to ask me out for months and then the one time I say yes I end up doing him.

"Mike... I know that you don't want to hear this but this really was a mistake. A huge mistake. I don't think that you fully understand how huge." I ran my hand through my hair again.

"What- but- I don't understand?! I thought you had fun? I know I did." He smiled at me sheepishly.

"Ugh! Mike my life is way too complicated ok. Believe me, you do _not_ want to get involved with me. I'm sorry if I mislead you but I was a bit upset last night ok." His face fell.

"Why is it complicated? Just tell me, I'm sure that I'll understand." I glanced frantically at the clock; 7 minutes. I looked back at him desperately but I could tell that Mike was one of those guys that just wouldn't take no for an answer. I'd have to scare him.

"Fine, I'm pregnant alright?!" Mikes eyes widen and he looked at me, then back over his shoulder at my bedroom and back again. In any other situation, he might have looked comical.

"No you idiot! Not you. Geeze! It's my best friend and his wife..." Mike just looked even more bewildered at that, "Ugh! Just- like I said it's too complicated and you don't want to get involved." I opened the door with a pointed expression on my face. When he still didn't move I grabbed his upper arm and pulled him with all of my strength.

"Just go Mike ok?" I said, shoving him out the door and into the hallway. I checked to make sure that he was showing signs of turning around and leaving before I slammed the door on his back.

I spun round and hurried to the dirty clothes basket before heading back to the living room. I grabbed the empty beer bottles and the remaining three that were full and sprinted into the kitchen. I opened the bin and stuffed the full bottles as far down as I could so that no one would find them. I'd have to see if I could find time to reimburse Mike; it was the least I could do.

I glanced at the clock again and sprinted back into the living room; four minutes to go. I gave the room one final sweep and had just turned to make myself slightly more presentable when three distinctive knocks echoed around the apartment. I froze and stared at the door then looked down at myself. The flannel shirt only just covered up my underwear. I raised my hand up to my hair and ran my fingers through it. I could barely get them three centimetres without getting stuck. Ok, great; I had a serious case of sex hair too.

There was another knock at the door and I groaned before walking over to answer it. I grabbed the handle and pulled it open to reveal Alice, Edward and Rosalie.

"Hi," I said lamely as they all took in my interesting appearance. A huge smirk came across Rosalie's face and Edward grinned. Alice however, was eyeing me suspiciously like she knew that there was more to my appearance than just waking up.

"Just get up did we Bella?" asked Rosalie as I stood aside to let them in. I rolled my eyes at her as Edward smiled at me. Alice walked past without looking at me and quickly stepped over to the kitchen bench, like she was in a hurry to look at my dirty plates.

"So I take it that you're not quite ready to go out to brunch yet?" said Edward, leaning against the kitchen bench beside Alice. Rosalie walked into the kitchen.

"No. Not just yet." I said sarcastically, calming down now that it was evident that they didn't think that anything was up. Rosalie suddenly reappeared at the bench holding three empty beer bottles that I hadn't yet thrown away, eyeing me sceptically.

"Eerrr, I think it's been a while since I cleaned up the kitchen." I said uncomfortably. I really wasn't a good liar, but at least this one wasn't exactly hard to believe. Dirty dishes were piled up at the sink and my cupboards and fridge were still pitifully empty. Rosalie looked around at the dishes in disgust, sighing to herself, and began whirling around the kitchen like a tornado; cleaning everything in sight.

Normally I wasn't a dirty person. In fact I was normally an exceptionally organised person. My mum thought that I was obsessive compulsive, but over the past couple of weeks I had had far too much on my mind to have room for trivial things like keeping my kitchen tidy.

Edward laughed at Rosalie's behaviour and I smiled. When Alice didn't laugh though, I noticed that she seemed to be unusually quiet; even for a normal person, which was super quiet for Alice. I was just about to ask her what was wrong when Edward spoke,

"Go on then. Rose will be done soon and you still won't be ready." I poked my tongue out at him but turned around and walked down to the bathroom all the same. I sighed when I caught sight of myself in the mirror; my hair looked like a birch broom in a fit. I was just leaning over the sink and splashing my face with water when I felt something soft hit me in the back of the head. At the same time I heard the bathroom door close and lock.

I turned around and looked down at the ground. A pair of oddly familiar male boxer shorts were lying near my feet.

Just as I realised this I heard Alice's voice from near the door say disapprovingly, "You're welcome." I frowned down at the boxers again, not quite sure what she was saying, then I realised why they looked so familiar; they were Mikes.

I felt my face burn bright red as I looked back up at Alice who was watching me with a cynical expression on her face. I decided to play dumb and pretend not to know what she was talking about. I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant but she beat me to it.

"_They_ were lying on the ground near the kitchen bench," she said, still frowning at me, "and don't try and tell me you don't know who they belong to. Look at yourself! I know just as well as you that you _don't_ sleep like that. I also know that you keep that shirt in your bedside table _just in case_ you have trouble finding clothes to wear in the morning." She folded her hands over her chest and waited for me to speak.

I felt my face flush a shade darker and I bit my lip. I didn't get a chance to figure out what to say however because Alice was speaking again,

"What's going on here Bella?" she said, striding about the small bathroom and waving her hands above her head, "You just found out that you are going to have my brother's baby and the first thing you do is go and shack up some guy! Can you imagine the look on Edward's face if he saw those boxers before I had time to hide them for you?" I avoided her gaze and continued chewing on my lip.

"Not only that," she said, her voice getting more and more incredulous as she went on, "but this is like the second guy in two weeks! Two guys that you barely know and that you haven't even gone out on a real date with!"

"Hey! You don't even know who this guy is!" I retorted,

"Oh really?" she said, "So you're telling me that you're going to see him again? Well then would you mind explaining why he's not here now?" I flushed again and looked down at my feet.

She sighed and I heard her sit down on the toilet seat, "I don't get it Bella. Why? Last night of all nights." I didn't answer her, mainly because I couldn't come up with anything to tell her other than the truth and I couldn't really just say, _"oh yeah, well I'm desperately in love with your brother. You know, the one that I'm about to have a baby for. The one who's married. The one who I've been friends with forever. And walking in on him and his wife having sex on their living room floor kind of sent me over the edge." _Like that would go over well.

"You know what?" she said, her voice suddenly sounding perplexed, "I don't think that in all the time I've known you, I've seen you be in a relationship with a guy that's lasted more than one night." My heart began to thud loudly in my chest. My mouth felt dry. Alice was looking at me like she'd just made a discovery that would affect the entire human race.

"Seriously! No I really haven't." She said, shaking her head and gaping at me. "I'll admit that I don't understand the whole going around from guy to guy thing. I've never done it cause I've always been with Jasper. I know that that's the kind of thing that you do in your early twenties, but isn't this taking it a bit far? I mean, I've never even seen you spend the morning with a guy the day after you... do stuff, let alone a day! In fact, I don't think that I've ever seen you get to know a guy _before_ you do stuff and you've been with a lot of guys Bella; I think I know about quite a few that you wouldn't believe that I know about!"

I didn't say anything again. Alice was so close to the truth that it was scary. No one had come this close in all the time that I'd known Edward. I could feel myself starting to panic. There was no way that I could come up with a lie to cover all of this.

Alice frowned up at me. "Is there something you're not telling me Bella? I know that you were probably upset last night, but it's not the first time that stuff like this has happened."

I stared at her and she stared right back. I shrugged my shoulders slightly, but without any real conviction.

"You can tell me anything you know," she said, her voice barely audible now. I looked at her for a long moment.

"I know," I said, my voice equally quiet. She knew there was something I wasn't telling her; she just didn't know what it was and I sure as hell wasn't going to help her get there. I doubted that she would ever figure it out anyway. She may be able to read me like a book these days, but some things are just too unexpected. I hated lying to her.

There was a long moment as Alice scrutinised my face but suddenly Rosalie's voice echoed down the hall,

"Come on you two! I'm running out of stuff to clean!" Alice jumped and I quickly spun back round to face myself in the mirror.

"Come on," said Alice, her voice returning to normal, "Get changed first so that you won't mess up your hair." I nodded and walked across the hall to my bedroom with Alice right on my tail.

I opened up my cupboard and began rummaging around for some clothes. Alice had other ideas however and pushed me out of the way. She shuffled through my clothes at lightning speed, clicking her tongue and sighing.

"Bella, we really need to go shopping." I felt my eyes widen and I shook my head frantically.

"I know that you don't like shopping, but this is just pitiful!" she said, gesturing towards the open cupboard.

"Alice I don't need new clothes right now," I said firmly. There was no way that I was letting her take me shopping. I had managed to avoid one of those trips for almost six months and I wasn't going to break my streak. She sighed then said,

"Alright, I know that you don't want to talk about this right now, but you are going to be needing new clothes pretty soon whether you like it or not." I felt my face turn red again and butterflies erupted in my stomach. I really didn't want to think about that.

"A- all the more reason for you not to buy me any clothes now," I said in a shaky voice.

"Ok fine, but I'm just warning you that we _will_ go shopping at some stage and you will have no choice in the matter." She turned back to my cupboard without giving me a chance to argue and began throwing clothes at me.

I stripped out of the shirt and changed into the clothes that I hadn't even known I owned and sighed as Alice pulled me towards the bathroom. At least she seemed to have forgotten about her earlier epiphany but this was far too much effort when we were only going out for brunch! Well, by the time Alice was done with me it was most likely going to be just lunch...

**Another lame ending but oh well! I thought that was a good chapter personally. Thought that you might like to see a bit more of Bella breaking down :] and Alice came sooo close to finding out Bella's secret! :O but sadly not close enough. I'm still not quite sure how that's going to come out in the open just yet. Well I hope you liked what I did with Bella and Mike. And Alice also. Umm... I want you guys to understand that Alice was disappointed in Bella for doing something so stupid and she really doesn't understand the whole sleeping with a guy and never calling. Obviously when she realised that this was all that Bella did, there had to be something not right and the way how Bella always acts whenever she gets nervous is a dead giveaway. Obviously bella does that because she's in love with someone else, but doing it takes her mind off of it for a while. Anyway... Alright so I've filled in my side of the bargain now you guys have to review ok! I really want to know what you think of everything that happened! I'll try and update soon, but if I don't get enough motivation it will probably take longer! ;) xo**


	9. Attitude Adjustment

**Hello again! Thanks for all of your reviews everyone, but hands up who had to read the last chapter again... I don't even have an excuse for my late updates now :[ **

**Quite a few people complained about the fact that I made Bella find out that she was pregnant too early because you can't find out the day of the procedure. I did know that this was incorrect!! And i'm starting to regret doing it wrong but I really needed to get the story line moving along. I couldn't be bothered doing another two weeks of Bella freaking out before we actually found out the results, and everyone knew that it had to be positive anyway! So I really sorry about that if u were disappointed but its done now and I'm free to get the story moving :]**

**I hope you guys enjoy this; I wrote most of it when I was on holiday in NZ, driving around in the car and stuff so sorry if its a bit scratchy!**

**Chapter 9; Attitude Adjustment**

"There, all done!" said Alice, sounding pleased with herself. I opened my eyes hesitantly and looked in the mirror. The birds nest was gone and my hair now looked presentable. In fact, it looked a little too presentable for just going out to lunch with friends but Alice had always been one to go to extremes; I'd learnt not to argue too much with her. My hair fell around my face and shoulders nicely and had a slight shine to it that I normally couldn't pull off.

"Well done Alice," I said grumpily. Getting a makeover from Alice always put me in a bad mood. She rolled her eyes and gestured for me to get up. I did so and followed her out of the bathroom.

Edward and Rosalie were sitting in the living room; chatting animatedly. They looked up as we entered and Edward's face lit up. I couldn't stop myself from smiling brightly back at him.

"So can we finally go now?" asked Rose irritably, "I had to get up far too early for my liking this morning, feeling like utter crap with a splitting headache, while Emmett got to stay in bed!"

"Sorry. I forgot how much you guys had last night."

Edward laughed, "Yeah I think everyone's feeling rather bad today. Oh! You left your bag at my place last night." He reached behind the couch and pulled my bag onto his lap.

It was strange how something so simple could bring on such as onslaught of emotion. I felt my eyes burn and I gripped the back of the couch so tight that my knuckles turned white. Images of Tanya and Edward suddenly flashed before my eyes and I gasped.

"Bella? Bella!" I blinked furiously and turned to face Alice who was holding my upper arm and shaking me slightly.

"Oh. Umm," I struggled to regain concentration. I forced the memories out of my mind and suddenly thought of the perfect excuse; "I completely forgot to call Renee yesterday." All three of them suddenly looked worried; Renee wouldn't be happy.

"You should probably do that before we go then," said Rose nervously. I looked around at them all and bit my lip.

"She won't be too upset will she?" I asked, seeking comfort. No one answered and so it was with some apprehension that I reached for the phone and dialled Renee's number. I began pacing back and forth as Alice sat down beside Edward.

Naturally, Renee picked up on the first ring.

'Hello?'

'Hi mum, it's me.'

'Bella! Oh my god! I've been so worried about you! Why on earth haven't you called me yet young lady!' I sighed and resisted the urge to run my fingers through my hair; Alice would probably spear tackle me before she let me mess up her work.

'I'm sorry mum. We went round to Edward's place after we were at the hospital and Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper turned up so I completely forgot to call you.'

'Well why didn't you call me when you got home?!' I bit my lip and tried to come up with an excuse. Telling her that I'd been having a breakdown and had turned to my neighbour as a distraction would probably lead to some awkward questions.

'I really don't know mum. I guess I was just tired.' I saw Alice raise her eyebrows at me behind Edward's back as she guessed what I was talking about.

Renee sighed, 'Alright, but I was really worried about you. I'd appreciate it if you made more of an effort in the future; ok?'

'Yeah, I'm sorry.' There was a moment of silence as Alice, Edward and Rosalie stared at me intently. I didn't know how to tell her that we already had the results back so I kept my mouth shut.

'So how did everything go?' asked Renee in an anxious voice. I swallowed convulsively. The panic that I'd felt when I'd seen that the test was positive was coming back and I could feel my chest begin to tighten. I hadn't thought much about it since last night and I really, _really_ didn't want to.

'Erm, well it went fine. The doctor said that everything looked good.' The phone was shaking slightly next to my ear as I attempted to stop my hands from trembling.

'It wasn't too uncomfortable for you then?'

'N-n-no. It was fine.' I bit my lip to stop my voice from shaking.

'Bella is everything alright? I know that you probably don't want to talk about this but you sound a bit funny.' I sighed again; now I'd have to tell her. The only problem was that I hadn't said it aloud yet. It had been fairly easy last night; all I'd had to do was hold up a positive pregnancy test, but I couldn't exactly do that with Renee when she was living in Florida.

'Umm... last night when I was around at Edward's... umm... Tanya asked me to take a pregnancy test,' Everyone in the room was looking at me anxiously but Renee didn't say a word.

'It was positive." I said bluntly.

'But- you mean that you're already pregnant?' said Renee in a tense whisper.

'Yeah,' I could hear Renee breathing on the other end of the line so at least I knew that she hadn't passed out. There was silence once again, but this time I didn't try and break it.

'Are you ok?' I stopped pacing in surprise. I had been expecting more yelling about not telling her sooner.

'I think so,' I said after a moment's hesitation. I heard Renee take a deep breath.

'Well, I really wasn't expecting you to get the results back for a couple of days.' She sounded like she'd had the breath knocked out of her and I heard the sound of springs groaning as she sat down.

'Neither was I...' I mumbled, remembering Tanya's insistence that I take the test. I quickly glanced round the room and saw Edward gesturing with his hands for me to give him the phone.

'Err mum? Edward, Rose and Alice are all here; do you mind if I put you on speaker? I think Edward wants to talk to you.'

'Ok,' said Renee in a tired voice.

I lowered the phone and quickly pressed the speaker-phone button.

"Hi Renee!" said Edward, Rosalie and Alice in unison.

"Hi kids. How are you all?" All three of them gave me worried looks at the sound of her drained voice.

"We're fine thanks Renee," said Alice, suddenly making her voice bright and happy.

"We're all about to go out to lunch actually," said Rose, starting up casual conversation.

"I thought that you were supposed to be at college Rose?"

"Yeah, well when I found out what was happening and that Jasper and Emmett were going to go down to the hospital after Bella was done, I didn't want to miss out."

"Renee?" said Edward quickly before any of us could interrupt him.

"Edward?"

"Renee, I've just realised that I haven't yet had a chance to talk to you about what I've asked Bella to do. I'm sorry that I didn't think to talk to you about it before Bella made her decision. I know that it _was_ her decision to make but I should have talked to you about it. She is your daughter after all."

I sighed and plonked myself down next to Alice. Edward always knew the right things to say.

"Edward I can't say that I'm thrilled with the situation but you're Bella's friend and you've been like a son to me over the past few years so I can't really object. At the end of the day my opinions don't really count for anything, but thank you for apologising."

Alice sighed and rolled her eyes as Renee suddenly started talking happily to Edward about his grades. He could be just far too charming at times. Rose made a gagging motion at Edward's corny speech and stood up to get something from the kitchen. Alice and I followed her, leaving Edward and Renee to their bonding session.

***

The next few weeks passed without too much excitement. I went on with life like it was normal and really it was. There were no outward signs that I was pregnant and I took comfort in the fact that most woman wouldn't even have known by now. Renee was calling me every night which served as an uncomfortable reminder but the rest of my friends were acting as though nothing had changed. I wondered if Alice had something to do with that. Edward was stressing but I could tell he was trying not to show it, and Tanya still hadn't spoken to me; she said hi and asked how I was but we never really _talked_.

Alice was the greatest help though. She had taken to staying at my house about three or four nights a week and it was only during these sessions that I really showed how worried I was. I had stressed about Jasper at first but Alice had waved me away; "He'll survive Bella. He knows that I need to help my friend. Besides," she'd said with a wink, "I've promised I'll make things double as good as he's only getting half as much."

It was exactly three weeks now since I'd taken the test. I'd bought two six packs of beer and left them on Mike's door step with an apology note, and I was still as busy as ever at work. It was only on a Sunday morning when I woke up very suddenly, that things started to change.

I had stared up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to figure out why I had woken up. I rolled over to look at my clock and I only just had time to see that it was exactly eight am, before a weird twisting sensation erupted in my stomach. I gasped and leapt out of bed as quickly as I could before sprinting headlong towards the bathroom.

I'd known that morning sickness was bound to be starting soon but I honestly had not expected it to be this bad. I gripped the toilet hard as I threw up again and again. It just didn't stop. I'd expected maybe one or two chuck ups but not this much!

I don't know how long I was lying there, but I suddenly felt cool hands pulling my hair back from around my face. I jumped slightly but didn't turn. All of my friends knew where the spare key was and it's not as if a burglar would hold my hair back while I threw up. My only worry was that it might be Edward. I didn't need him to see the tears that were rolling thick and fast down my cheeks, joining the mess in the toilet bowl.

My worries were put to rest however as Alice's voice said sadly, "Oh Bella, how long have you been sitting here?"

I gasped as my stomach churned again but managed to spit out, "What time is it?" before I was cut off and stuck my head back in the toilet bowl.

"It's about twenty past eight," she said, rubbing my back soothingly. I groaned loudly again. Twenty whole minutes!! In any other situation I would have been embarrassed at Alice seeing me like this but I was far too upset for that.

Finally I had started to feel the churning fade and I was able to sit up. Alice knelt down in front of me with a sympathetic smile on her face which annoyed me rather than helped me. I heaved myself up to the sink and stared at my blood shot eyes and tear stained cheeks.

Alice's face appeared over my shoulder. "What are you doing here anyway?" I'd grumbled. Alice's reflection raised its eyebrows.

"Hi to you too," she had said softly, "I just thought that I'd come over and see what you were doing today. Is that a problem?" Though she had her arms folded in an affronted way, I could see her fighting to prevent a smile. I had just sighed and rinsed out my mouth.

Unfortunately when it came to morning sickness there was no break. Every morning I would wake up at eight o'clock on the dot and for just one second I would hope that nothing was going to happen but it always did. Not only was I sick in the mornings, but I sometimes felt sick during the day and even during the evening for no apparent reason.

I put up with this all through the week after that first episode, constantly feeling sorry for myself, though I refused to complain to anyone about it; even Alice. I liked things the way they were now, where everyone was acting like nothing was the matter and I knew that if I told Edward he would immediately start blaming himself even though I was the idiot who had signed up for this. I was afraid that telling people would make it more real.

Each morning I would lie on the floor, mentally cursing Edward and his freaking sperm, for about half an hour, after which I would feel terrible for thinking about him like that even though he would have no way of knowing.

After putting up with this for almost a week, I got a call from Edward on Friday night asking if I was going to join them all for dinner on Saturday night. I had agreed obviously (it's not as if I could have resisted his voice anyway), but maybe I wouldn't have if I'd known what would happen.

I drove myself this time, insisting to Alice that she should spend more time with Jasper (I was kind of worried that he would start to hold a grudge against me). When I arrived everyone's cars were out the front and I pulled up between Jasper's Mercedes and Emmett's Jeep.

I wandered through the doors and waved to Ted the manager before hurrying through to our table. They were all laughing loudly when I walked around the corner and Edward was the first to notice me. He jumped up and quickly rounded the table to give me a hug. I'd seen Edward quite often in the past month though he'd refrained from talking about the 'situation' as I liked to refer to it, but I still noticed how he watched me out of the corner of his eye, like he expected me to sprout three heads as any moment.

"Hey Bells!" came Emmett's booming voice from somewhere behind Edward's back.

"Hi Emmett," I called back happily over Edward's shoulder. I didn't know why, but I was suddenly in a very good mood. I could feel the smile tugging on my face, something I hadn't felt in a while. I glanced at Alice and saw her looking at me with a weird expression on her face which quickly changed into a huge, genuine smile. This confused me but it was quickly pushed to the back of my mind as everyone started asking how my week had been.

I sat down and moaned about the amount of work load that I was getting then listened to everyone else complaining too, but was surprised how much I was enjoying myself; I really needed to get out more these days.

A waiter quickly came over and Edward began listing off what we usually ordered. None of us really paid attention; we always ate the same thing.

"So then the guy had the nerve to come up and ask me out!" said Rosalie in an outraged voice. Everyone at the table burst into laughter, though Emmett didn't look too thrilled.

"That happened to me the other day!" said Alice with a giggle, "I was ordering a coffee on the way to work and the guy screwed up my order three times just so that he could keep coming back and talking to me! It was disgusting." This time it was Jasper's turn to scowl. Alice rubbed the back of his hand in a soothing kind of way and he immediately softened. He was so whipped.

I was just about to open my mouth and talk to them about Mike having the nerve to keep coming over when I remembered that I had _allowed_ him to come over and quickly shut my mouth. This conversation was making me realise things that I really didn't want to. Would guys come up to me like that anymore? I knew the answer to that question. A big, fat no. Even if you are a nice person, or you're a lot of fun, men will always, _always_, stay away from a pregnant woman. They were practically screaming _responsibility, responsibility, responsibility._

I knew that it was only for a few months but I wasn't just thinking about that. What about afterwards? I may never look the same again. I was happy with the way my body was right now and I knew that it was vain and selfish but I really didn't want that to change. I guess that I didn't really have much choice any more.

I could feel my good mood begin to slip away and I tried desperately to cling to it. I didn't want to be a grump when I was around my friends. I shouldn't have to try not to. I didn't know why but I had been getting cranky and upset far too easily lately. Ok, maybe I did know why, but I much preferred to pretend that I didn't.

I focused back on the conversation just as our food arrived. It all smelled so great that I grabbed a spoon and began dishing it up on my plate as fast as I could; before Emmett got to it. Alice grinned at me from next to Jasper and I poked my tongue out at her. Everyone else began following my lead and there was a moment of silence as I took my first bite.

The moment I tasted the sweet and sour sauce I knew something was wrong. The flavour was off... in fact, it tasted disgusting. I felt my stomach reel and I was out of my seat and sprinting towards the bathroom before I could even think.

I barged my way into a stall and threw up violently into the toilet. A moment later I heard tapping feet behind me and someone was suddenly holding back my hair. I retched again as I heard a second pair of feet join the first.

"Is she ok?" I heard Rosalie ask the person behind me in a worried voice.

"She should be fine," said Alice, "Could you just make sure that all of the sweet and sour pork is gone before she gets back?" I heard Rosalie's retreating feet and groaned.

"Shhhh Bella, just get it all out." I obliged by sticking my head back in the toilet and throwing up again. After that I finally felt better and was able to sit up.

"Sorry," I mumbled, not looking Alice in the eye.

She sighed in an exasperated kind of way, "Don't be sorry Bella, how were you supposed to know?" I looked at her shaking her head just as Rose re-entered the room.

"All better?" she asked in a sympathetic voice.

"Yes," I grumbled as I stood up and offered Alice a hand. She took it and I quickly walked over to the sink to wash out my mouth. I glanced up at the mirror again and I was just about to groan when Rose went into action, pulling out a hair brush and tissues, before spinning me around to face her.

As she worked Alice asked, "Have you thrown up at eating anything else?" I could feel myself beginning to blush at talking about this stuff but forced myself to answer anyway.

"Nope, but I haven't exactly eaten a very wide variety over the past couple of weeks. I don't tend to cook exotic meals." Alice rolled her eyes at my attempt at being sarcastic and Rose put the brush away.

I glanced back in the mirror. It wasn't exactly perfect but it was better than nothing. "Thanks Rose."

"No problem, now stop the moping and come out and have some fun! Edward's about to jump out of his skin." I hitched a smile back onto my face and Alice laughed.

Rose walked out ahead of us. I don't know why, but I felt embarrassed to walk outside, like everyone out there had just seen me naked. Alice grabbed my hand and pulled me through the door before I could think about it anymore.

Almost immediately I was assaulted my Edward, "Bella!" he said in relief as he rushed over to me, "Are you alright!?"

I glanced around at the others nervously before answering, "Yeah, I'm fine." I smiled again, though it felt more like a grimace, as I walked straight past him and sat back down.

No one said anything but maybe that just made it worse. It was obvious that they knew _why_ I had been sick and it was even more obvious that they were trying to avoid _talking_ about it; which meant that there was complete silence because they were all _thinking_ it. I took a quick sip of water and pushed my plate of food away.

Edward slid back into his chair, staring anxiously at me. I avoided his gaze as the silence buzzed around me like an annoying fly. I felt like screaming, jumping, anything to get them to say something!

I couldn't take the silence anymore so I just said stupidly, "Good food." That seemed to break the ice.

Emmett let out a booming laugh and said, "Well how did it look the second time round? I'm scared to eat mine now Bella, thanks a lot."

"Oh haha," I said with a smile. Edward's face seemed to relax as it became apparent that i _wasn't_ upset.

"We can order you something else if you like?" he said, "I can go and buy you something else?" I gave him an exasperated look, trying to remind him that this was exactly the sort of behaviour that I did not want to put up with.

"I'm fine Edward," I said calmly.

"Bella you need to eat," he said forcefully.

"I know that Edward," I said through gritted teeth, "I will make something when I get home!" There was no way that I was making him leave his dinner just so that he could drive to KFC or something and buy me dinner. I'm pretty sure that that would be considered as a breach of our compromise entailing _not drawing attention to me!_

Alice shot him a look and he seemed to realise he was being pushy. Tanya laughed at our argument in an annoying high pitched way and immediately steered the conversation towards herself. If it had been anyone else I would have been grateful but I knew that she just wanted the attention.

Unfortunately my good mood was officially ruined for the evening despite my efforts to bring it back. I knew that I was being idiotic; these were my friends, they didn't care if I went to the bathroom to chuck up; it was only my attitude that was making it awkward.

Dinner was cut rather short in the end, with Edward insisting that he was tired, though I was sure that he just wanted _me_ home so that I could eat. I made a mental note to have another chat to him about being over protective.

We all said our goodbyes and I quickly hopped into my truck after promising Edward that I would come over to his house at some time during the week.

As I drove out of the parking lot, I thought about everything that had happened, mulling it over in my mind. Overall it had been a pretty big disaster right from when I had tasted my food. There was no way that I was going to survive all of these months with everyone acting that weirdly, but the problem was that I knew it was mainly my fault. Not only did I agree to this, but I also had the stupid impression that I should be embarrassed about it. I guess it was natural to be a bit embarrassed, but my friends were trying their best to stop that from happening and I was only making it harder for them. I quickly resolved from then on to stop the moping around give myself a sharp attitude adjustment. If I didn't act so awkward about it then my friends would have no reason to think anything _was_ awkward.

It wasn't as if I was dying or anything, I was exactly the same person as I always had been. I could make this better, I hoped.

**Hope you guys liked it. I know that it was kinda uneventful but I'm more focused on actually deciding how I'm going to play this out. To be honest I'm still not sure what kind of action or drama I can add in and I'm trying to work that out now; hence the crappy chapter. So if you guys have any ideas I will be EXTREMELY happy to hear them. Thanks very much for reading, and thanks for sticking with me through my slow updates. If you want to be extra nice, you can review ;] Let me know what you like and what you dislike and I'll see if I can change it accordingly!**


	10. Movies and Doctors Appointments

**Hi again :] Guess what... I'm on Christmas holidays!! Two and a half months! So, I've made a pact with myself that whenever I'm about to say, 'I'm bored' I'll immediately jump on my laptop and start writing. Sorry about the snail pace updates once again, but writers block is my permanent state of being. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**Chapter 10: Movies and Doctors Appointments**

"Alice, I don't need to go shopping!!"

Alice scowled and shot me a very frightening glare. Rose just rolled her eyes and continued contemplating her nails. I glared at Rose for not backing me up.

She glanced up and sighed, "Sorry Bella, but I agree with Alice. You might as well be prepared." I scowled and glared out the window.

We were sitting in my little apartment, where I was supposed to be having a 'good time' as Alice put it. I'd been working hard all week and Rose and Alice had taken it upon themselves to make me feel better. What they didn't realise was that shopping was NOT the way to do that. Especially... pregnancy shopping, _cringe._

Alice was adamant that I needed to be prepared. I was only eight weeks along; I looked no different! And I didn't like thinking that I did. I _knew_ that I didn't; I had developed a nervous habit of looking at my profile in the mirror out of the corner of my eye after a shower.

I had managed to go most of the past month without mentioning the whole pregnant thing, apart from when I was forced to after dashing out of a room to throw up. Emmett had told me the other day that my mood was on a rollercoaster ride. He was lucky that I had been holding a spoon at the time and not a knife.

"Bella, we're not saying that you need the maternity clothes and whatnot right at this very second, but what if one day you get up and feel like wearing a pair of jeans, only to find that they don't fit? What else are you going to wear?" I felt my face turn bright red at Alice's logic.

"For goodness sake! Just talk to us Bella!" I jumped in my seat at Rosalie's sudden outburst. "We all get that you're scared, and embarrassed and whatever else, but we're your best friends and you're supposed to talk to us about these kind of things!" Alice gave her a slightly appreciative look and I looked away, ashamed.

It seemed like my attempts at making everyone more comfortable had been pretty pathetic. I had become more and more distant from all of them, despite my conscious efforts to do otherwise. I only saw them once a week, if that, and even visits from Alice were becoming more and more infrequent.

I sighed and unfortunately felt my eyes burn with unshed tears. I blinked and one spilled out and slowly rolled down my cheek. I took a deep shuddering breath and hugged my knees to my chest. I hated getting upset like this; it made me feel like an idiot.

I felt the couch sag next to me and Rosalie wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

"I'm sorry," I said softly.

Rose sighed and shook her head, "Bella, you need to stop treating this like a prison sentence; it's really not that bad. Remember how you felt when Edward asked you? You really wanted to do this for him, so what's changed?" I didn't answer.

"Exactly! Nothing at all. I know that I can't ask you to enjoy yourself, just like you can't ask everyone to treat you like normal, especially Edward. He's really worried about you, you know. He thinks you're depressed." I sniffed and wiped my eyes.

"Are you depressed?" asked Alice, sceptically.

I shook my head fervently. Of course I wasn't. I was just freaking out a little bit. Or a lot...

"I think you need to go shopping Bella." said Rosalie in a more cheerful voice. I groaned again.

"Give me one good reason why." I said unhappily.

"Fine, you may not need the _clothes_ right now, but you definitely need bras." It took me a second before I understood what she meant and my face turned a deep beetroot colour before I hid it in my hands.

"Shut UP." I whisper-yelled, embarrassed.

"What? It only true Bella. Your boobs are huge right now. I seriously can't believe that your old bras still fit you!" She and Alice laughed as I groaned and rolled off of the couch and onto the floor.

I peeked out through my fingers at their grinning faces, "I know, I know. How the hell did you guys notice that?"

"Oh please Bella," said Alice with a trilling laugh, "who hasn't, would be an easier question." They both laughed again and I slumped back onto the floor.

"God that's embarrassing." I moaned. I quickly crossed my arms over my chest in an attempt to hide it from view but that only made them laugh harder.

"Fine! I'll go shopping with you guys, but not for another week."

"DEAL!" they both yelled quickly, before I could withdraw my offer.

"But what are we going to do today then?" asked Alice in a sad voice.

Rosalie had just opened her mouth to answer when there was a huge bang from the doorway and a loud voice bellowed, "GATECRASHING!!"

All three of us spun around to see Emmett, Jasper and Edward storming through the open doorway, looking very pleased with themselves. I seriously needed to find a new place for that spare key.

Alice, who had fallen next to me on the ground in fright yelled, "You guys scared the shit out of me!!" Emmett guffawed.

"What are you two doing on the ground?" asked Jasper in a bemused voice.

"Bella had a momentary lapse in fashion, and Alice just shat herself," said Rose with a grin.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" interrupted Alice, sharply.

"Saving Bella from the almost guaranteed boredom of hanging out with you two, and taking all three of you to the movies!" said Emmett, looking proud.

Edward smiled his crooked smile at me as he walked around the couch and offered me a hand. I took it, suddenly feeling very self-conscious about the fact that I was wearing a bra that was a good two sizes too small for me.

I stared at his face, feeling incredibly happy all of a sudden as he said, "How are you Bella?"

"Fine thanks." I replied lamely. I was brought out of my own little world by Alice's angry voice.

"Well what if we don't want to go to the movies!?"

Emmett rolled his eyes and winked at me. I grinned.

"Oh shut it Alice, we had nothing else to do anyway." said Rose, also rolling her eyes as she joined Emmett.

Jasper, being very brave in my opinion, walked over and helped Alice up off the ground before quickly kissing her hard, effectively putting a stop to any complaining.

I shook my head and walked around the bench and into the kitchen. I was seriously hungry, despite the fact that I had only eaten two hours ago. Edward, Rose and Emmett all followed, not wanting to watch the gooey scene back in the living.

I opened the cupboard and bit my lip as I examined its contents.

"Hungry?" asked Edward, walking up behind me and looking over my shoulder.

"A bit," I admitted, shrugging my shoulders. I could tell that he was dying to tell me that I should eat, and to ask me for the nutritional details of every meal I had eaten over the past week, but I was glad that he stopped himself.

"I get hungry a lot lately," I said, trying to sound casual, thinking that this would hopefully be enough to satisfy him for a while.

"That's a good thing Bella," he said, going into doctor mode. He leant around me and picked up an apple, waving it in front of my face. I screwed my nose up and Emmett laughed again. I snatched it from his hands and grumpily took a bite.

"Thank you," he said happily, brushing a stray piece of hair behind my ear. I blushed.

"Edward, I forgot to ask you, do you want to go and see your parents at some stage?" I was just trying to change the subject, but I had forgotten about Charlie's request.

He frowned at me, "Why? Have they asked you something?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I just assumed that you would want to go and see them. I mean if Tanya had... gotten pregnant, wouldn't you have taken her down to Forks? In this case, I'll just be tagging along. I'm sure Esme would be upset if you didn't." I took another bite from my apple.

"Oh..." he said, looking surprised, "I'd never thought about it like that." He smiled, "Would you be ok with going to Forks?"

I shrugged, "Yeah, it was Charlie's idea. He wanted to see me, so I thought that you might as well see your parents as well."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," said Rose, "you haven't seen mum and dad for ages Edward."

"Well I'll ask them, I'm sure they'll be happy to see you too Bella. How long has it been since you've been to Forks now?" he raised his eyebrows.

"I honestly can't remember. No wonder Charlie wants to say hi." We all laughed and I mentally praised myself for managing to be so social.

Alice and Jasper joined us in the tiny kitchen looking flushed. Emmett wolf whistled.

"Alright, what movie are we seeing?" asked Rose.

"No idea!" said Emmett still grinning. Alice rolled her eyes.

"You mean you barge in on us like this and you don't even have a proper plan!"

"Come on Alice. It'll be fun!" I said with enthusiasm, grinning at her. Alice blinked slightly and looked at me questioningly. That made me feel bad; had I really been that unpleasant to be around lately? Apparently my sudden smiling around the group had Alice feeling a bit differently.

"Alright then," she said without really paying attention as she was still looking at my face, a small smile playing on her lips. Edward put his arm around my waist and began chatting away. I really wasn't paying any attention.

Everyone around me seemed to be moving in slow motion as I glanced down at Edwards arm, except for Alice. She followed my gaze taking in my suddenly red face and wide smile. She froze and her expression quickly changed from one of surprised happiness to just surprise, her mouth opening slightly. Our eyes met for a fraction of a second and I quickly slid out of Edward's grasp and hurried over to the fridge on the pretence of getting a glass of water.

I was panicking again. What had Alice noticed that had made her look at me so strangely? Had she seen something in my eyes when Edward had touched me like that? She knew me better than anyone else, even better than Edward now. Could she possibly figure out my feelings for him? Surely not. I'd felt that way for years; there was no reason for her to figure it out now. Unless she had a wild imagination and managed to put this moment and the conversation in my bathroom together, she wouldn't guess in a million years! I assured myself this quickly as I sipped my water, and turned back around to face the group.

Alice didn't bring our 'moment' back up at all on the way to the movies, meaning that by the time that we arrived I was back into quite a happy mood. The presence of Edward and the absence of Tanya had me feeling extremely good. I had asked where she was in the car and Edward had said that she was working. Strange for a Saturday.

We decided on the latest action/comedy, thinking that there would be something for everyone. Everyone split off into their little couples as we lined up, leaving me with Edward. I couldn't help thinking how nice it would be if there were three couples and not just two.

I remembered back to the conversation that Alice and I had had in my bathroom, right after the Mike fiasco. She had been right of course; I had never been in a serious relationship. It was a bit hard to pay that much attention to someone when you were hopelessly in love with someone else. I had never lined up with the group and split off into couples, I had never been on a double date with Alice and Jasper; I was always the one left by myself. The only person that I wanted to be with like that (who was married), was standing right in front of me.

"Do you want popcorn Bella?" asked Edward, smiling down at me. I smiled back and tried not to imagine what it would be like if we were here together, not just as friends. If me being pregnant now was a result of our love for one another, not of his and Tanya's love. I was sure, no matter how much I detested it now, that I would be quite happy to have a child if it was with Edward.

I quickly stopped my thoughts there, "Yeah sure."

"What have you and the other two girls been doing?" he asked.

I almost laughed, imagining telling him about our earlier conversation.

"Nothing much, they're trying to convince me to go shopping." I grimaced.

Edward's face suddenly turned serious, "Let me know when they make you, I'll give you my credit card." I felt my face go hot with anger this time and opened my mouth to protest, but he put a finger on my lips to stop me.

"This was part of the deal Bella; I pay for everything that you wouldn't normally need. Are you trying to tell me that you wear maternity clothes on a daily basis?" He grinned and I scowled.

The six of us moved up to the ticket booth and then walked on to get stuff from the candy bar. Edward insisted that he pay for the two of us, while Emmett nearly bought the whole place out.

When we got into the cinema, I purposely sat Edward next to Alice. She may not have tried to talk to me yet, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I sat on Edward's other side, next to Rose. I smiled as she casually twined our fingers together over the arm rest, wordlessly showing that she cared.

Unfortunately I was extremely distracted throughout the entire movie due to the heat that I could feel radiating from Edward's shoulder. He kept glancing over at me and smiling his incredible smile, putting me into a kind of daze until the next time that he did it.

Consequently, when the movie ended, I had no idea what the story had been about. Alice and Rose were ogling over the male lead, much to Emmett's and Jasper's dislike, but I hadn't even noticed him.

I was in a thoroughly good mood as we exited the cinema, but as we walked back past the candy bar Emmett insisted that he needed to buy a hotdog, despite all the crap that he had already eaten. I wonder if there's some kind of rule, where if you experience happiness for one day, something bad just has to happen. As Emmett walked back over to us, the smell of the hotdog wafted through the air and had me running for the nearest bathroom before I could blink. But because I had no idea where that bathroom was, I was forced to hurry outside and chuck into the nearest rubbish bin for everyone to see. Great...

I felt cool hands rubbing my back and heard Edward's voice ask, "Bella, are you alright? Do you need anything?" I closed my eyes and shook my head as I waited for the churning to fade. I made doubly sure that it was definitely gone before I straightened up.

All six of them were standing behind me with worried expressions on their faces. I looked over their heads in an embarrassed kind of way and self-consciously wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Sorry about that..." I mumbled, biting my lip.

"Don't you apologise Bella," said Rosalie, rolling her eyes again, "Emmett's the idiot who has to eat every three seconds." She smacked him on the back of the head.

"Sorry Bella," he said. I found it difficult to take his apology seriously though, as he still had a massive grin on his face. I felt disgusting standing there in the middle of the street, where I was sure that heaps of people were staring at me. I furtively ran my tongue across the front of my teeth, removing any traces of food.

Alice sighed and grabbed my arm, pulling me back into the movie theatre and towards a large arrow indicating the toilets that I hadn't noticed before. I'm an idiot. She quickly helped me to wash my face and rinse my mouth out but I still felt gross and the taste was lingering.

"Do you want to go home?" she asked, pulling me back the way we had come.

"Kinda..." I mumbled, "You guys can drop me off on your way out to dinner." I really needed a shower, and my back and feet were aching.

"Don't be silly Bella." She waved her hand in the air and walked swiftly back to the other four.

"We're going back to Bella's," she announced, not giving them much of a choice, but none of them argued.

The drive home was uneventful but Mike passed us as we trudged up the stairs to my apartment. I nodded swiftly to him and he cast me a wistful look. I saw Alice narrow her eyes.

"You guys make yourselves at home," I said once we were inside, "I'm going to go and take a shower."

They all walked into the tiny living room and I dashed down the hall to my bedroom. I kicked off the shoes that Alice had forced me to wear and groaned in ecstasy. I grabbed a pair of old sweats and a t-shirt, before darting across the hall and jumping into the shower. The hot water felt amazing and I spent a little too long in there for what was necessary. I took extra care in cleaning my teeth and quickly got changed, leaving my wet hair down to dry and avoiding looking at my reflection in the mirror.

I walked back out about twenty minutes later to find them immersed in trivial pursuit.

"Bella! Do you realise that there is no food in the house?!" said Rosalie the moment that I emerged, "When was the last time that you went grocery shopping?" I blushed and shrugged my shoulders, trying to look casual, but I saw Edward frowning.

"We can get takeout. Does anyone want coffee or something?" I asked, walking into the kitchen to get a glass of water, and hoping to change the subject. Five people yelled back yes, so I set to work making them, trying not to feel jealous of the smell. If I had to make a top ten list of 'bad things about being pregnant' then not being able to drink coffee or alcohol would definitely be in the top five.

I walked back out, choosing to carry one mug at a time. They were all too immersed in the game to really pay much attention and I had just sat down when Emmett started losing. He threw his hands around and knocked his and Alice's mugs over, spilling coffee all over my white carpet.

I really don't know what came over me, but I leapt to my feet and started screaming, "EMMETT!! Are you ALWAYS such an idiot! Holy shit! Why can't you do anything right?!" All five of them froze and stared up at me. Most of them looked scared but Alice just looked worried.

I finally stopped yelling and the room was entirely silent. Once I had calmed down, it was obvious how ridiculous I was being, and I immediately went from angry to freaking out. I felt so bad! Why had I lost it with him? Emmett always did stuff like this, I thought that I was used to it by now.

I slumped back onto the couch and covered my face with my hands. Unfortunately I was going from bad to worse and tears started rolling down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry!" I wailed, "I'm so sorry Emmett! I don't know what happened."

There was a moment of silence once again. I was crying far too much lately; maybe I was dehydrated?

Alice walked across the room and pulled my hands away from my face, but to my surprise she was smiling; they all were. Suddenly, Emmett let out a huge laugh.

"Wow! Remind me not to get on your bad side at the moment Bells!" he still had a huge smile on his face, completely un-phased by my little fit. This didn't make me feel better though. I'd gone from being completely happy, to being completely insane, to a complete basket case all in the space of five minutes! Even though none of them were upset, I couldn't stop myself from crying for some reason.

When it became apparent that I wasn't laughing, Edward quickly walked over to me and put a hand on my knee. "Bella, it's ok. This is completely normal; it's not your fault. Your moods are just a little off balance at the moment. We understand." He smiled at me and wiped a tear off of my cheek.

"Yeah, and Emmett is an idiot." said Jasper with a grin. Alice laughed her tinkling laugh and ruffled my hair. I hiccupped and wiped my eyes.

"God, I'm a bitch." I mumbled. They all laughed and Edward squeezed my knee in a comforting sort of way.

"Nah you're just hormonal." said Emmett waving his hand in the air like it was nothing, but I blushed anyway.

Everyone sat back down and continued playing their game. They were almost finished when I remembered that we still needed to eat and there was no way that I had enough food in the house; not unless everyone felt like having pickled onions for dinner.

"Do you guys want to order takeout?" I asked grabbing the phone.

"Sure," said Edward leaning back and looking at me, "what do you feel like?"

"Anything but Chinese." I said, remembering the last fiasco. I felt kind of bad; we'd have to find a new place to eat. I'd be quite happy with letting them go and staying at home, but I knew that no one would allow that, and Edward wouldn't let me not eat anything.

"Pizza?" suggested Jasper.

Pizza seemed to be the consensus so I quickly dialled the number and ordered three large for all of them and one small plain cheese for me, just to be on the safe side.

"Where's Tanya?" asked Rose, after a while and I realised that I hadn't seen or heard from her all day, not that I was complaining or anything.

"She was going to call me when she was done, but I guess she's either forgotten or got held up somewhere." said Edward with a frown.

"What is she working on?" asked Jasper.

"She's got a deal with a modelling company, doing clothing for a magazine and it's keeping her very busy at the moment. I don't mind, as long as she's enjoying herself; that's what matters."

The rest of the night was uneventful. We played board games and ate pizza, and at around eleven, everyone decided that it was time to leave. I had to say that I was pleased; I was dead tired and my back was killing me from leaning forward and playing games all night.

Rose pecked me on the cheek with a reminder that we would be going shopping whether I liked it or not and Emmett gave me a huge hug, before the two of them left. Rose was staying down here for a while and they wanted to make the most of it.

Alice hugged me tightly, "Call me if you need anything, don't stress at work." I smiled at her and nodded. She gave my hand one final squeeze before leaving with Jasper. Maybe I had imagined the look that she had given me in the kitchen... perhaps I was just getting paranoid.

I turned around to find Edward leaning against my kitchen bench, a smile on his face.

"You leaving?" I asked, walking over to him.

"In a moment, I just wanted to talk to you about something first." My stomach dropped uncomfortably.

"Shoot," I said, walking into the living room and collecting the pizza boxes.

"In a few weeks, you're supposed to get a check up with Dr. Keller," I scrunched my face up when I was sure that he couldn't see me.

"I was just wondering if you would be willing to have an ultrasound done at the same time?" he spoke slowly, like he was testing me.

"Oh," I said, turning to face him; he looked hopeful. "Errr, I guess so. Do they do them that early?"

He sighed in relief then said in an enthusiastic voice, "Yeah, I was chatting to Dr. Keller the other day and she asked if we'd like to do it. I really think that it would be a good idea. It's an excellent way to make sure that everything is going smoothly and I think it would be good for Tanya to feel more involved." The look on his face was so ecstatic that I couldn't refuse him.

"Umm, sure. Just let me know when the appointment is and I'll make sure I get off work." I had a serious case of butterflies, but I knew that I was being stupid. It wouldn't be that bad.

Edward's face turned more serious, "Will you be comfortable with that Bella? I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do." He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me right in the eye.

Well, I didn't exactly _want_ to do it. It would make the situation more real than anything that had happened so far which I wouldn't be looking forward to, but I knew that Edward would love it. I mean, neither he nor Tanya had exactly been very 'involved' at this point. I knew that it was early days, and that that was bound to change, but I could do this one thing if it really made them that happy.

"Yeah. I'll be fine. No big deal." I hitched a huge grin onto my face and looked back at him. He swiftly pulled me into a tight hug and whispered a thankyou into my ear. I felt my brain go fuzzy as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door. I barely listened as he said that he'd call me in a couple of days to see how I was and the next thing I knew he was gone.

I stood with the closed door in front of my face for a long while before I gathered enough concentration to walk down to my room. I was in a very good mood while I got dressed and cleaned my teeth, but by the time I crawled into bed, I was thinking about the upcoming month.

I had a shopping trip with Alice, an ultrasound with Dr. Keller and the prospect of heading into my second trimester which meant that a visit from Renee was on the horizon. Great... this was going to be fun...

**There you go guys. Hoped you liked it. I'm busy starting the next chapter right now so expect one soonish, well... soonish for me. Probably before Christmas. ****Well let me know what you think and happy holidays everyone! Jess**


	11. Shopping

**Another chapter. Hope you guys liked the last one, even though it was a bit of a filler. I guess most of this story is fluff :] ahh well. There will be some drama at some stage, but I think Bella's problems are enough for now. Oh and btw, I've brought jake into the story in this chapter, but don't worry, its an ExB story. Just thought it would be fun :] Thankyou all so much for your reviews! I didn't even notice, but you guys took me over 100. Thanks heaps!!! :]**

**Chapter 11: Shopping...**

Unfortunately, Alice and Rosalie didn't magically forget about my promise to let them take me shopping. Not only was it shopping, but this kind of shopping was even more unbearable as it involved me being pregnant. I'd never noticed just how many stores there were in one shopping centre that sold _just_ baby stuff!

The part that made it most unenjoyable was that all of these stupid shop assistants were so nosey! Ok, maybe they were just being friendly but it was annoying the hell out of me.

"Oh which is the mother to be?!"

"Aren't you just so excited?!"

"Is it your first?"

Gah! Talk about uncomfortable. I'd given up on trying to explain the situation to them and started to just smile and nod while Rose and Alice giggled in the background, being absolutely no help what so ever.

The first shop we went into was okay because it was just underwear. Apparently my bra situation was the most worrying at the moment because Alice walked past three sales to get there. The only embarrassing part was when she insisted that one of the shop assistants help me measure myself because she was sure I wouldn't do it properly. I put a stop to that pretty quickly.

"Bella!" yelled Alice, the moment that I was out of the changing room, "how about this?" She was pointing to a lace covered, pink, silk bra that looked far too revealing to actually provide any support.

"Umm, Alice... seriously?" I said, trying not to gag.

She rolled her eyes, "Not for you silly. For me! It's Jazz and my anniversary next week!" I blushed again.

"I think that's more Rose's department than mine Al," I said, "and I'm pretty sure that he'll want to get off with you no matter what bra you're wearing."

"It's all about presentation Bella," she said, rolling her eyes.

Alice had had me try on so many different bras that I had two whole bags full. I seriously didn't know why I needed that many when I would go back to wearing my old ones in a few months... or maybe I wouldn't... I really had no idea. I made a quick mental note for myself to get a couple of books on this stuff before we left. I didn't want to freak out every time something unexpected happened.

I must have really been dreading the maternity clothes part, because when they announced that they were finally ready to leave I was actually disappointed. Rosalie grabbed my hand that wasn't holding bags and led me across to a store that I could tell I would hate just by looking at it. Alice tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a credit card.

"Edward told me to give it to you," she said, when I glared at her.

We walked into the store and they began browsing immediately, pulling item after item off of the shelves. I walked over to a section that looked right up my alley and grabbed a couple of t-shirts and sweat pants before Alice could stop me.

I walked back over to the other two and watched as they pulled things down and showed them to one another. That was when the first sales person came over. Any idiot could tell that he was going to make a hell of a lot of money off of these two.

"Ladies!" he announced happily, "who's the mother to be?" he smiled expectantly around at all three of us. Even Rose and Alice stopped what they were doing to look uncomfortable while I blushed.

"Err... I guess that's me." I announced raising a hand and shrugging. I knew that this day would be full of unpleasant conversations. The man looked slightly confused at the 'I guess' part of my sentence and Alice quickly jumped in and explained, saving me the embarrassment.

"Bella is actually being a surrogate for my brother and his wife," she said, smiling a beautiful smile and probably dazzling the poor guy.

That was just the start of many unpleasant conversations. Thankfully though, Alice and Rose were considerate enough to let me buy what I wanted as well as what they wanted. I tried to treat it like I was just trying on normal clothes, not maternity wear. It made me feel a whole lot better about the situation.

The second store sold clothes and other baby type necessities. I averted my eyes from all of the toys and diapers and bottles the whole time we were in the shop. An older woman approached us after about fifteen minutes and started complimenting Alice and Rosalie's choices.

"So who are these for?" she asked, smiling around at us.

I raised my hand and tried to look very absorbed in the dark blue jeans that Alice was showing me.

"Oh how lovely!" she said, clapping her hands together, "You mustn't me far along dear, and you look wonderful. Oh and so young! I take it that this is your first?" This lady was painful. I blushed a furious shade of red and tried not to have a freak out session right in the middle of a shopping centre.

I guess I really should just humour them. They're all used to mothers coming in and cooing over cute dummies and raving about how they can't wait for their baby to arrive, but my situation was so different that it was scary.

"Err... yeah, definitely the first..." I said uncomfortably. It was Rose that jumped in and saved me from explaining this time. The old woman actually looked quite shocked when she told her and wouldn't stop rattling off questions the entire time that we were there.

After two more stores like this we stopped for lunch. I slumped down into a chair and groaned. My feet were killing me. I looked down and was surprised to see how swollen they looked. I wondered why that was... then I remembered that I would have to find a book store somewhere.

Alice and Rose sat down opposite me, chattering away happily. I closed my eyes and tried to relax and ignore the fact that I was surrounded by at least fifteen shopping bags. Why oh why did I need this many clothes? I wouldn't ever wear them again!

"What do you want to eat Bella?" asked Rosalie, who was standing up to go and take our orders.

"Anything but Chinese or hotdogs," I said with a shrug. She walked off with a smile and a flick of her hair. I noticed a table of guys a few metres away, stop mid sentence to gape after her.

Alice smiled at me and rested her chin on in her hand, "It's not that bad Bella." she said, knowing exactly what I was thinking.

"I know," I sighed, "but I'm sick of these stupid shop assistants." She laughed.

"They're just trying to be helpful Bells." I rolled my eyes.

"Let's just not bother trying to explain any more ok? Let them think what they want to think. That woman in the second store was painful." Alice chuckled.

Rose returned a few minutes later holding a salad for each of us. I ate mine quickly and still felt hungry afterwards (I was eating heaps lately), before getting up and going to pee.

When I returned, the two of them were already on their feet, laden down with bags. I sighed and traipsed after them, trying to ignore by aching feet and back.

The rest of the day passed in much the same way. We went into store after store and I tried on more and more clothes. The only highlight was when I got to go to my bookstore. I sped through the 'pregnancy' section, snatching up two books without really looking at them, before waltzing off to look at some classic fiction. Alice had to drag me out.

It was five in the afternoon when they finally declared me fashion fit for the next six months. I'm pretty sure that I'd bought more clothes today than what I had in my closet at home. I sat in the back of the car on the way home, surrounded by shopping bags, with my eyes threatening to droop shut.

They helped me to carry all of the bags up to my apartment, which took several trips, before quickly leaving. I'm guessing that they realised I wasn't in the mood to entertain guests.

"Call me if you need anything Bella. Don't stress." said Alice, as she hugged me goodbye.

***

Unfortunately, Alice's request for me 'not to stress' went completely out the window as soon as I walked into the office on Monday.

Over the weekend, some high up employee who was very popular among a lot of the staff at the paper had been fired. As a result, almost half of the paper had resigned in protest. Obviously this put those of us that were left in a bit of a pickle.

There were people running everywhere, screaming at the top of their lungs while I sat in my office furiously typing away on my computer. As we had an entire paper to fill with only half the staff, everyone was writing double, or in my case; triple. My boss had stormed into my office before I had even booted up my computer and demanded that I have three stories finished in two days. I swear I nearly had a heart attack.

Needless to say, Monday was the constituent of stress and I didn't leave the office until eight at night. I was just glad that Edward didn't call, wondering where I was. I hated to imagine how that conversation would go.

The next day was no improvement. I got to work as quickly as I could, but I couldn't leave until after eight o'clock, unless I felt like spewing my guts up in the office restroom.

I hurried past all of the cubicles full of frantic writers and practically dove into my office to start. I'd managed to get one of the stories finished yesterday, but that left me with two to do today, both of which were bigger than the last.

It was a good four hours later when someone walked up to my door. I spun myself around, expecting to see my red faced boss, but it definitely wasn't him. This man was tall and dark, with biceps the size of my torso. He stood casually, with a briefcase in one hand, in dark jeans and a button up shirt.

"Hi," said the man standing in my doorway, "My name's Jacob Black. I'm from the sister paper on the other side of the city." I stared up at him, having no idea what he was doing here.

"You're Isabella Swan?" he asked, flashing a grin with very white teeth against his russet skin.

"Err, yeah. Can I help you?" I asked, starting to get agitated; I was wasting precious time.

He leant against the doorframe, "Because you guys are having a lot of trouble over here, my paper's sent a few workers over to help out, and apparently I'm yours to work with. I'm at your command." He flashed another grin.

I stared at him for another moment to make sure that he wasn't joking, before letting out a huge sigh of relief. I slumped back in my chair and put my hand over my eyes.

"Thanks god!" I groaned. He laughed a bark type laugh.

"I take it that you're kinda busy at the moment?" he said, grinning down at me.

"You could say that." I said, smiling for the first time in a while, "How long are you here for?"

"As long as you need me I guess. Apparently I'm sort of your counterpart at the other paper; we do the same sort of sections." I sighed in relief again.

"What do you need me for?" he asked. I sat back up and tried to pile some of my stuff into an orderly fashion.

"Well, I've been given three stories to work on. I've got one of them done and I'm working on another, but you could pick up the third if you don't mind?"

"Sure thing,"

"That would be great," I said with another smile.

"Where do you want me to set up?" he asked, holding up his briefcase. I glanced around the office, which was a complete mess. I had a large L shaped desk, one part of which was taken up by my computer and the other half of which was taken up by a mess of papers.

"Well if we clear this stuff away," I said, gesturing to the papers, "you could stick a chair over the other side and work on that part of the desk."

"Sounds good." he said, enthusiastically.

I quickly stood up and noticed Jacob's eyes rake over my body for a moment. I was wearing a high waisted skirt and a blouse; attempting to use them while I still could I guess (I didn't normally wear this kind of stuff, but I had taken to using it over the last week or so).

Unfortunately I was at a stage where I had no need for maternity clothes, but the upper area of all my old clothes was becoming uncomfortably tight and the blouse I was wearing now showed a hell of a lot more cleavage than what I was used to, due to the fact that I had several buttons undone that I normally wouldn't because they just wouldn't do up. It was because of this that I let Jacob's staring slide. I knew that if I was a guy and there was a girl dressed like that in front of me, I would stare.

Together we managed to clear most of the desk off, leaving small piles of paper all over the ground.

Jacob was good to work with. He got everything done efficiently, he didn't talk too much but he was still good company, and he took away half of my work load. It was nice to have someone as to talk to and he could always make me smile.

We worked together for the rest of that day, and I was thrilled when I walked into my office on the Wednesday to find him already seated and typing. My boss had handed us another four stories once we'd handed him the other three... great.

It was Thursday night before I knew it though, and I still hadn't quite gotten everything done that I needed to. The office was clearing out around Jake and I, and the only small window in my room slowly got darker and darker.

It was six o'clock when Jacob closed his laptop and leant back in his chair to stretch.

"You finished?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the screen.

"Yep!" he said happily, stretching again.

I continued to type away as he collected his stuff together. I barely noticed when he walked around to the front of my desk and waited.

"Bella?" he asked, after a moment of silence.

I pushed myself back from my desk slightly and looked up at him.

"What's up?" I asked, running a hand through my hair.

"Do you want to go and get a drink with me?" he didn't sound nervous, just determined.

I bit my lip, wishing that he hadn't asked, because I would love to go out with him. He was a guy that I would enjoy going out with, despite the fact that I wouldn't let it last. But right now I couldn't do anything with him; not with my life being as complicated as it was. He was a really nice guy, and I didn't particularly feel like hurting him.

"Jake..." I said softly, trying to figure out how to let him down nicely, "I would love to, but now really isn't a good time..."

He looked at me for a moment, then pulled a card out of his pocket and slid it across the desk towards me.

"Call me anytime Bella," he said with a shrug, "I'm always available." He gave me a quick smile before turning and walking out of the office. I stared after him, worrying that I hadn't made myself clear enough.

I glanced down at his card and shrugged, slipping it into my handbag. I guess it couldn't do any harm to keep it.

The next time I looked up at my clock, it was eight thirty and my eyes were stinging. I was so tired, but I had to finish this last story. My eyes were threatening to close when I sensed, rather than heard someone standing at my office door.

I spun my chair around to find a very angry Edward glaring across the room at me. I briefly had a weird thought that I'd fallen asleep at my desk and was dreaming. What the hell was he doing here?

"What are you _doing_ here?" I asked, looking at him warily. He didn't look too happy.

"I might ask you the same question." He said, folding his arms across his chest.

There was a moment of silence as I stared at him, he was acting very strange. I took in his angry expression and stiff posture. I got that I was at work far too late, but he was still acting weird.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"I called your house several times, but you weren't home and I didn't think that you'd be asleep."

"Why didn't you call here?" I asked, confused.

"The answering machine turns itself on automatically after eight o'clock."

"Oh..."

There was another moment of slightly awkward silence. I had no idea what he expected me to say; I had to finish this story.

"Bella! I thought that we'd talked about this, you need to look after yourself a little better at the moment!" I gaped at him.

"Edward, half of my paper quit this week. I don't know how you expect me to control that." His stiff pose relaxed slightly, but he was still glaring.

"I don't think that staying past 8:30 at night is an appropriate way for you to approach that! No one else is here!" It was my turn to glare now.

"Actually, my boss is here." I said defiantly. I immediately wished that I hadn't though as Edward turned and stomped off towards my boss's office.

I jumped out of my chair as fast as I could and hurried after him, but I was too slow. I looked on in horror as he opened the door with 'Anthony Mathers' inscribed on it and walked inside without knocking.

"Edward!" I hissed, but he didn't listen. I half ran up to the door but Edward was already inside and standing at Anthony's desk. He glanced up from his computer in surprise and looked Edward up and down with wary eyes.

"Who are you?" asked Mr. Mathers, sounding annoyed. There were huge bags under his eyes and he was sweating despite the freezing air conditioning. This was definitely not a good time for Edward to do this.

"My name is Edward Cullen. I'd like to have a word to you about Bella." I almost passed out right then and there. My boss glanced over at me standing horror struck in his doorway.

"I didn't realise that you were still here," he said, taking in my appearance.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Mathers," I said, panicked, "Edward get out!"

Edward ignored me completely and continued speaking, "I understand that you are having a difficult time at the moment but I would appreciate you giving Bella some lenience. I do not feel very... happy about her staying at work this late at the moment; now that she's pregnant. Surely she could finish whatever she's working on when she arrives tomorrow." I leant against the doorframe for support. I couldn't believe that he was doing this!

Anthony looked rather shocked when Edward finished and he glanced at me. I blushed when his eyes travelled down to my stomach. I tensed, waiting for him to start yelling, which I would find perfectly acceptable considering that a complete stranger had just barged into his office late at night and demanded he change how he ran his office. I was therefore surprised when his posture relaxed somewhat and a defeated look came over his face. He looked dead tired.

"Yes, alright. I expect those stories on my desk by lunch time tomorrow. All of us are under a lot of stress at the moment, and I haven't had a lot of time to address any staff issues. You should go home." He sighed and ran a hand over his balding head. He turned his tired eyes back to his computer screen as Edward turned and walked straight out of the office.

"What the hell was that?!" I said furiously, as soon as the door was closed, "It's not even his fault! I'm just slow! You had no right to do that!" Edward continued to my office and I stomped after him.

I had just opened my mouth to yell something else when he turned around to face me. I stopped dead when I noticed how tired he looked as well. There were huge bags under his eyes and his hair was even more bedraggled than usual.

"Bella, he wasn't going to fire you if you've just lost half of your paper, you _do_ need to go home, and I wasn't going to let you stay!" he sighed and reached out to touch my arm.

"Please, just humour me. I worry enough as it is without knowing that you're still sitting in your office late into the night." I looked into his face and all of my anger faded. I couldn't stay mad at him for long, no matter what.

"Alright, just let me grab my stuff." I said, moving past him to gather my things together. Something was wrong, I knew that much. Edward never acted like this; he was never grim and angry.

As I walked back towards the door with my bag, Edward turned on his heel and walked out before me. I frowned after him. Normally, he would stand back and let me pass first or at least smile his crooked smile or touch my arm.

We headed out of the office in silence, Edward staring straight ahead.

"What's going on?" I demanded, unable to take the tension anymore.

Edward started, like he was surprised to find me walking next to him. He looked over at me, unsmiling.

"What? Nothing..." he said, staring straight ahead again.

I sighed. Obviously something was wrong. I hated how things had become with us. He used to tell me everything, but now he was purposely not telling me something. Lying.

"Yeah, ok." I mumbled, sarcastically.

Edward let out a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up even more.

"Tanya wasn't very... _open_... to the idea of us three going and visiting Carlisle and Esme." he sighed again.

I frowned up at him. I guess that explained why he was so anxious, they must have had a fight, but why would she not be 'open' to the idea.

"Why not?" I asked, trying to understand.

"I don't know..." he mumbled, looking away again. Yes he did. There was definitely a reason and he knew it, he just wouldn't tell me. More secrets, more lies. I decided to ignore it this time.

"So we aren't going?" I asked, feeling slightly disappointed. I didn't want to have to tell Charlie that.

"No, she's come around. It's just... I don't know..." he trailed off again, his face falling into a frown.

I didn't ask again. I had a sneaking suspicion that I didn't really want to know her reasons and Edward obviously didn't want to tell me.

We walked down the stairs and into the car park in silence. Edward's Volvo was parked right next to my Chevy.

"Make sure you eat before you go to bed," he said, turning to face me. I bit back a smart-arse answer and merely nodded. I was sick of all of this worrying though it could be a whole lot worse I guess.

He stood back to let me into my car and I slid into the driver's seat feeling a bit uneasy. Edward reached out for my door preparing to slam it closed.

"Speak to you later?" I said, kind of desperately. I didn't want to just drive off without any other sort of conversation between us. I remember when I was very young, not in double figures yet, I had been in the car on the way to school with Renee. I'd wanted to have McDonalds for breakfast and she'd flat out refused. As a result we'd wound up sitting in a fuming silence after a lot of yelling. When we pulled up to the school I jumped out of the car immediately and stormed off, neither of us saying anything.

That afternoon, I'd completely forgotten about our argument, but when I jumped into the car, Renee had a tray of McDonalds sitting between the two front seats. She hugged me tightly and began apologising while I sat there completely bewildered as to what was going on. I think that this situation must have had some kind of an impact on me because I never forgot it.

The one thing that stuck in my head more than anything else was when she said, "I just can't imagine what I would have done if something had happened to you today. That would have been the last thing that I ever said to you." There had been tears in her eyes. I couldn't let myself drive away from Edward like this.

"Yeah, I'll call you tomorrow," he said, showing a bit more emotion, "I want you to be home at an appropriate time." I was about to complain when he suddenly grinned at me, kissed me on the cheek and slammed the door. Needless to say, I completely forgot about being angry at him.

**Hope you guys enjoyed it. I know it was more filler but things will mainly pick up in the middle of the story, and I'm not quite there yet. I've planned the whole thing!!... pretty much... proud of me?? :] lol, ah well, let me know what you think. I wasn't entirely satisfied with this chapter; I didn't think that my writing was that great, but I'll try and make the next one better. Thanks for reading!!!**


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